From Publishers Weekly
A (somewhat vaguely explained) near-mishap years ago has left 15-year-old Luke with an intense fear of bridges. His father, who designs these structures, expresses blatant disdain for his son's phobia. The boy hopes that his acceptance into a daredevil gang will enhance his parent's image of him, but the club's final initiation requirement involves walking across a railroad bridge. This act is unthinkable to Luke and, branded a coward by the gang, he becomes a social outcast. His trauma is alternately assuaged and escalated by Shea, a "beyond just pretty" schoolmate, and Skeets, the bully who adores her. Gabhart ( Two of a Kind ) belabors his attenuated story line, in which the martyred protagonist accepts his undeserved (and somewhat unbelievable) ostracism too stoically. Yet in a climactic scene, Luke's courage emerges--providing needed tension and suggesting that anxieties can be quelled in the course of helping others. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ingram
Luke's big chance to join the Truelanders is ruined when he is unable to go through with the dare proposed to him during their test for bravery, and he must face the humiliation that that failure brings.