“I was thinking: Is this what love is, feeling like you’ve been spun around underwater? Forgetting how cold you are, until she looks up and you look down and you’re embarrassed and the world comes rushing back in? Or is love not being able to get that image out of your head, the image of the moment right before she looked up?” ― Michael Northrop, Trapped My Thoughts about Trapped Photo Credit to Ryan Tauss on Unsplash Quote Photo Credit to Yaoqi Lai on Unsplash Confidence: The main character struggles with confidence and throughout the story we get an inside peek at his thoughts and the reasoning behind his actions.However, knowing trade skills like welding, working with motors, how furnaces function, etc. They state a few times that the things learned in school could do nothing to help them in their current predicament. Value of Trades: The person they turn to the most for information learned everything from his dad, a tradesman.There are a few points where you wonder why they are still friends but everything turns out. Friend Loyalty: Loyalty of friends comes into question when you add girls into the mix.Survival: They use survival knowledge like building a fire and basic sanitation.The barriers of the cliques start to break down and they realize how much they have judged each other. Cliques: The seven kids are from a range of cliques.

Reading Level: Grades 7-12 Touchy Topics in Trapped Photo Credit to Rob Lambert on Unsplash Violence: PG-13 for intense sequences fight between two of the boys, finding his friend deadĪdult Content: PG-13 talk about getting laid, oogling parts of a girl Overall: PG-13 for thematic elements and mild adult content. Trapped Parent Guide Photo Credit to Michael Browning on Unsplash He is your typical average Joe just trying to get by and make something of himself. He is insecure about his physical appearance and his place in the school hierarchy. I also really like how relatable the character is. I wasn’t expecting that to be a part of the story but it makes it more believable.

This book is told from the perspective of a high school boy with all of the random thoughts that pop into his head while trying to impress a girl.

With the world in quarantine, I figured it was an appropriate book to pick up because of similar feelings of anxiety and tension.

I love survival books where the characters are thinking outside the box to stay alive with what they have. First Impressions Photo credit to Ruben Rodriquez on Unsplash

Trapped by Michael Northrop