In Which Leah Reviews... Traffic Jam by Melissa Groeling

 When you’re caught in traffic, you’ve got nowhere to go…

Val Delton’s life is spiraling and there’s nothing she can do to stop it. Her dad lost his job, her mom works fourteen hour days to pay the bills and yet somehow there are high-end shopping bags and an iPod in her older sister’s room. Naturally, Val becomes suspicious but her sister’s lips are sealed. Then by accident, she uncovers a dark, dangerous secret hidden behind her sister’s bright smiles and cool indifference. Val has no idea how far and how deep the repercussions of her sister’s secret will reach but she’ll do whatever it takes to keep her family safe. Will she succeed before her sister’s secret destroys everyone she loves?

  

Paperback, First, 300 pages

Published May 26th 2012 by Black Opal Books

Traffic Jam by Melissa Groeling

This story is a dramatic tale about Val and her struggles through life. She is a young girl in high school and everything that can go wrong in a person’s life seems to happen to her. She gets into unnecessary fights at school and even worse battles with her older popular sister Sam that seems to enjoy watching her suffer. What looks like a normal life for a young teenager gets a strange twist when she discovers expensive new things in her sister’s room that she couldn’t afford to buy since their father lost his job and her mother works the whole day long to pay the bills. Val gets suspicious of her older sister and doesn’t seem to know what to make of this new development. Traffic Jam is a well written story about characters that are relatable and come to life on paper. We feel sympathy towards Val and want to keep reading just to see if her story ends with a happily-ever-after. An easy read that all readers would enjoy when they crave for something filled with raw emotion and the well-known fights between two sisters that are complete opposites. This book was enjoyable and many YA readers would love it as well, especially younger readers that enjoy stories about the strange awkward girl in a high school that gives the impression that it is only against her. There is just a splash of romance, just enough to make it more believable in such a story and Val shows the reader that just because you are seen as the weird girl doesn’t mean you can’t achieve certain things in life.