Hillcrest Journal
from letters to the author:
“ Overall, your book was one of the best I have ever read. It deals with normal high school issues in a way that is easy for people of all ages to be interested in.”
“I wanted to laugh, cry, cringe or even rejoice at different stages in the book. . . . Since I have read this book I have learned many things. I have an even bigger assurance that it's ok to not give into peer pressure.”
“Reading your novel reminded me of how almost every high school is the same and how every teenager has ups and downs just like everybody else.”
“I loved your book. . . . Chad is so much like me it was scary.”
“Hillcrest Journal is more than honest about high school life, it's honest in general about what life is and how it goes.”
Summary:
Hillcrest Journal is a blunt, rapid-paced coming of age novel told by the main character, Chad Wilson, during his senior year of high school. Moved against his will from the farm he always knew to the small town of Hillcrest, the troubled senior seeks to discover his true values in 1984 America: social, sexual, and moral. This search is documented in his typewritten journal that progresses from a jumbled mess of rambling words to a movingly written account of a young man's search for meaning.
Does he accept his Christian parents' values, even though their lives seem to contradict those beliefs? Does he accept some of his newfound friends' values, even though his friends seem as equally confused as he is? And how will he handle his prom date with the girl he has secretly loved for years?
He begins to question everything around him as he is torn between his desires, his questions, and his convictions. His journey leads to bitterness, confusion, temptation, and, ultimately, forgiveness. Throughout his struggle, his one enduring value is his utmost honesty-with himself and with his journal.
“Skillfully told. . . very realistic.”
– New-Enterprise