Lynch, Chris (2001). Freewill. NY: HarperCollins. ISBN: 0060281766. 148 pages.

Summary and Evaluation: Will is troubled. Orphaned by his parents and left to live with his father's parents. He sleepwalks through life, not even aware of the furniture and sculpture he makes in his woodshop class. He can't seem to stay in school and has no real friends. Matters get worse when teens start dying in his town, and he finds himself responsible, since at every location one of his strange carved monuments appears.

This book has two running themes. The first is water, because drowning seems to be the suicide of choice in this town and can be both a life giving and life taking force. The second is Christianity. The three sections are called Faith, Hope, and Charity, and Will is a carpenter of sorts with a bit of a cult following.

Told entirely in second person "You smile, but you don't half mean it" (p. 52). Lynch has difficulty sustaining an actual narrative within this voice. I was constantly curious and engaged, though I often had no idea what was ever happening.

Like Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak (another Printz Honor Book), it seems as though Lynch is attempting to take the reader down the spiral of depression that can occur after a major trauma, but he is only mildly successful. Using the second person never allows Will an independence of voice.

Lynch, unlike Anderson, never fully reveals the details that lead up to the tragedy nor the descriptions of the main character. Why did Will ever want to be a pilot anyway, or think he could be? Where was he when his parent's died? Is he schizophrenic, psychotic, just clinically depressed, or just really shy and moody? Too much remains a mystery.

In addition this direct address narrator never really becomes known: is it Will's internal voice? His therapist? Is it God? Is it the Devil? And without Will actually responding to the barrage of questions constantly thrown at him from this voice, it is difficult to know what conclusions to arrive at.

Booktalk: With this book, you could bring in a prop of a beautiful piece of turned wood or carved doll, and use the prop to introduce the character's skill at woodworking, and tout the piece as a mystery.