Lion, Melissa. Swollen.

LION, Melissa. Swollen. Random House, Wendy Lamb Books, 183p. c2004. 0-385-74642-3. $15.95. JS*

As a reader of numerous YA novels, I truly enjoy finding a gifted new author in the field, and Melissa Lion is one. She writes in prose, but anyone hearing the story could easily imagine she had written it as poetry, and thus Swollen is related to the poetry-formatted YA novels. The narrator is Samantha (Sam) whose parents love her though they are terrible parents. They are divorced and Sam's mother has gone off to live in Oakland, leaving Sam behind in San Diego with her philandering father and his girlfriend Ruth, who turns out to be the most loving adult in Sam's life. Ruth gets pregnant but decides to leave; in the end, Sam finds Ruth's new home, with the new baby, a true sanctuary.

Sam is highly intelligent and perceptive. She has one truly close girlfriend, Chloe, who lives in worse circumstances. The two lean on one another. Things change when Farouk starts to notice Sam in class and the two begin to spend time after school together, studying sometimes, and at other times exploring the beaches up and down the coast. Farouk is from an immigrant family and his parents expect him to become a doctor; in many ways he is more sophisticated than anyone else Sam knows. In other ways, he is less experienced. Through hints and oblique references, Sam tells us that she has had experience picking up strange boys on the beach and having casual sex with them--sex that is meaningless to her. With Farouk she knows the sex will be special, but he is hesitant and after they do sleep together, he backs away from Sam, makes excuses, and eventually takes up with a girl from his own Iranian background. Sam is bewildered and hurt. It seems to be one more betrayal of trust and love in a life filled by her parents' selfishness.

One of the ways Sam identifies herself is as a runner, but she never runs up to her full potential; she believes she could do better, but something stops her from trying. Then Farouk becomes more important than running and she drops out of the program at school. At the end, however. as she is recovering from the failed love affair with Farouk, we know she is getting stronger when she again starts running, and this time she believes she is a true runner; this time she will try her best. Claire Rosser, KLIATT