Rating: 
-
Took a long time to get going and a lot of football stuff.. not enough depth to the story/characters for my taste.. once the story picked up and started to get good, it wasn't long before I was able to "call" the ending(of who done it and why) and "call" it correctly. Having read the book now, if I could go back in time and buy it or something else to read.. I'd try my luck with something else.
Rating: -
While the storyline seems to be aimed at a young adult audience and deals with almost-adult themes (the characters are 17 and in intimate relationships), the writing seems to be aimed a fair bit younger. The narrative is from Cody's point of view, and is mostly short, declarative sentences.
That Cody is a fairly unworldly, unsophisticated kid further serves to make reading his point of view tedious. Cody's near-total lack of knowledge about anything beyond high school football (doesn't he even watch television?) is hard to empathise with, even though I suppose it's fairly realistic for a small-town high school dropout. Another point of view (Clea, a cop, a classmate, a parent) would have helped break up the slog through Cody's not-very-bright thought processess. As it is, reading about Cody's "investigation" ("clueless bumbling" is more like it) of his girlfriend's disappearance is frustrating.
Rating: 
-
Sometimes reality is too hard to handle. When your girlfriend is leaving, you have a knee injury school falls in last. Grades start to drop when nobody is on your back about them. When your knee injury is your first priority, what would happen if you girlfriend is kidnapped? Will she become your first priority? Reality Check by Peter Abrahams is an exciting love story with to high school kids.
Cody Laredo has passing grades in all his classes, going out with the smartest and prettiest girl in the school. Cody has it going for him with a high paying summer job. That is until his girlfriend, Clea is sent off to boarding school and Cody gets a torn ACL, so he can't play football for the rest of the year. Cody's grades start to drop and he just gives up, dropping out of school and stays home or goes to his job, walking down the street Cody notices a heading on the news paper "Local Girl goes Missing." Clea who is now Cody's ex- girlfriend went missing from her boarding school in Vermont and the only clue that he has is the letter she sent him the day she went missing. Cody sets out on an adventure he would have never saw coming, and soon figures out that football is not the only thing he is good at.
Reality check is a teenage to early twenties kind of book. Reality Check has some strong language and a bit of violence, but this does not go away during the story. Reality Check has a mystery, love story, and violence all rolled up into one suspenseful book that's a great read.
Reality Check is difficult to make connections to because it is different then most books. I have never read a book that has a love story in the beginning and a mystery/kidnapping at the end, nor have I watched a movie like it.
Since Reality Check is so different then most it keeps you reading more. The love story keeping you relaxed, smiling and even laughing, makes you feel good inside. However, when the mystery begins, in about the middle of the story, it keeps you on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what happens, wanting to know wheat happens next in the book. I'm not a big reader myself but when I started to read this book I couldn't put it down! Reality Check not only has one climax but many throughout the book.
Reality Check is amazing, very exciting, and never boring! I say even if you don't like reading try this book I guarantee you will like it.
Rating: 
-
Reality Check is about a teenager named Cody who was the top quarterback at his school and was sure to go to college and his girlfriend, Clea, who was the smartest and prettiest girl in school. There relationship was seemingly perfect until Cody severely injures his knee and Clea is sent to Beijing for the summer taking a huge toll on the once perfect couple. Soon after Clea is home and Cody injures his knee the two split and Clea is sent to one of the top private schools in the country where she is expected to keep her grades and focus. Cody is distraught and soon embarks on a life without meaning where he basically drinks, sleeps, and parties his way through the days of Clea's absence. But after a few months of Clea's leaving he receives an odd letter from Clea telling him how much she misses him and how she wants to see him. Then shortly after receiving the letter he hears the news of her mysterious disappearance. Cody who is still very much in love with her runs off to her private school in Vermont where he is determined to discover the disappearance of his one and only true love. Once in Vermont Cody discovers the mystery of Clea's disappearance all of which has to do with deception, greed, and blackmail. Will Cody find Clea before it is to late or will he have to live his life in misery over the loss of his love? This thriller is not as good and exciting as the plot leads you to believe, confusing and with a somewhat implausible plot it is a little lackluster on the action. As well as a lackluster plot the characters are not examined very well and Clea and Cody's relationship is not looked at deep enough. Definitely not worth buying, I suggest that if you are dieing to read this book wait until it is available at your local library.
Grade: C
Rating: 
-
"Cody extended his hand, patted Bud's face. He looked into Bud's big brown eyes, thinking: You know. Whatever happened, you know."
Varsity quarterback Cody Laredo has a difficult time scholastically. He has some real disadvantages, being that his mom died some years ago, and he shares a small, grungy apartment with his hard-drinking, uneducated, unloving father. Fortunately, Cody has a great thing going with Clea, the smartest, richest, hottest, horseback-ridingest girl at County High, in Little Bend, Colorado, just east of the Rockies.
But when, at the end of their sophomore year, Cody is joyful about the D- in English -- it is, after all, good enough for him to be able to play football in the fall -- Clea is totally freaked over her B in calculus. She knows that she'll pay a heavy price for anything less than an A. And she does.
While Cody spends the summer helping make deliveries for the local lumber yard, Clea's powerful businessman father ships her off to her uncle's home in Hong Kong, and then enrolls her in a Vermont boarding school for the fall. Cody tries to do what he thinks is the right thing by ending his relationship with Clea. Then, at the very end of the first football game of the season, a moment after Cody has pulled out a one-point come-from-behind win, a very dirty and very late hit on his knee results in a devastating, season-ending ACL injury that requires surgery, pain pills, and rehabilitation.
With no girlfriend, no support, and no football, Cody quickly falls behind and then completely gives up on school. Even a return to work for the lumber yard quickly sours...and then Cody sees a story on the front page of the newspaper that Clea has disappeared in the woods near her boarding school. Her horse, Bud, returned to the campus barn without her.
After a sleepless night, and a terrible day of work, Cody comes home to find a somewhat cryptic letter from Clea that was mailed the same day she disappeared. Packing a snack and some clothes, withdrawing what he can from the ATM, Cody aims his truck toward Vermont.
There are so many teens who love great thriller/mystery stories -- or would if they were lucky enough to find one. Peter Abrahams has crafted a first-rate page-turning thriller and mystery for young adults. Danger, disappearance, and star-crossed lovers make REALITY CHECK a perfect summer read.
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