Lifeboat Clique--Kathy Parks

Title: Lifeboat Clique
Author: Kathy Parks
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2016
Pages: 336 p.
Source: VOYA
Compensation: None
Read: December 2015

Kathy Parks's Lifeboat Clique

Denver has been ostracized at school for years thanks to her ex-BFF Abigail, but things are finally looking up when a good-looking nice boy asks her to go to a party with him. Despite her reservations about going to one of Abigail's parties (and lack of parental approval), Denver decides to take the risk and accept Croix's invitation. Not even Abigail and her ditzy flunkies Sienna and Hayley can ruin her good night with Croix but just as their lips are about to touch, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the coast of California. Croix and Denver manage to crawl to a rooftop but Croix is knocked off by a palm tree. Denver, the outcast, is left alone on the now floating rooftop with Abigail, Sienna, Hayley and Trevor, the popular kids. Luckily for them Denver has watched a lot of Discovery Channel while they were all having fun without her, but even she cannot save them all.

Although the plot is pretty grim--Denver and her companions battle dehydration, hunger, hallucinations, and death--Kathy Parks has created such a witty, sardonic main character that the book itself is not grim. It is easy and fun to read. Readers get the backstory of why Abigail and Denver are ex-BFFs as Parks deftly weaves it through the main plot. Readers looking for a bit of humor and a side of sarcasm with their tragedy will gravitate towards Lifeboat Clique.