What Happened to Cass McBride?

What Happened to Cass McBride? by Gail Giles (Little, Brown and Company) ISBN: 978-0-316-16638-6

Plot Summary

After the suicide of his brother David, Kyle wants to punish and torture the responsible party.  Since Cass McBride had turned David down for a date (and written a disparaging note about him intended for her best friend but intercepted by David), Kyle focuses his anger on Cass.  Kyle kidnaps Cass, and buries her alive (providing oxygen, a means for removing carbon dioxide, and a walkie talkie -- so she'll know why she's being tortured).  Meanwhile Ben Gray and his young partner Scott are rushing to find out who might have kidnapped Cass.  While Kyle's intention may have been torture, what he gets is a conversation: over the course of which he realizes who is really to blame for David's death.

Critical Evaluation

Giles makes use of traveling narrators, distinguished by both font and their name in place of a chapter title.  Kyle and Cass' discourses are in first person.  Kyle is speaking after having been arrested.  Cass speaks (mostly) buried in a crate in a green house.  A third person narrator (with no distinct personality) allows us to follow Ben Gray (a detective)  searching for Cass.  I had trouble determining what message was supposed to be sent by the fonts. Kyle's text is printed in a sans serif -- Charlotte Sans -- which looks like it would be a good web reading font, but is perhaps supposed to indicate his character's lack of control (as serifs are often associated with formality and thus organization or control).  Cass and Ben both have serifs -- Mrs. Eaves and Agfa Rotis respectively.  Agfa Rotis looks the closest to a Times New Roman -- a professional font (the preferred font of the MLA).  Perhaps these serifs indicate that these characters have more control (though ultimately Cass is left in a pretty sad state).  The rotation of narrators and (even more so) the plotting with various chronologies creates the tension for the novel.  My one criticism is that even though Giles shows a willingness to break her initial pattern (a Kyle chapter, a Cass, a Ben) by skipping over some Kyle chapters, the penultimate and antepenultimate Cass chapters actually worked to release tension not build it.  While those two chapters discuss the fleeting light and the absence of pain before death, we know pretty clearly from the mere existence of the chapters that she is not dead.

Reader’s Annotation

After Kyle's brother hangs himself, Kyle is looking for someone to blame.  Will Cass McBride have to answer for David's life? 

Information about the author

From the author's official website:

My last winter in Alaska was a tough one. I had been having a writing crisis. I’m usually kind of upbeat and confident, but some harsh words from a couple of sources had managed to get under my skin and shake my groundwork a little. I was paralyzed when I got in front of the keyboard. A whole new feeling for me.

Add the long dark days of the Alaskan winters and a record snow for Anchorage. More than eighteen feet. I looked out my windows to see nothing but snow. I felt buried alive. Paralyzed by words spoken and paralyzed by words I couldn’t seem to write. The idea of words, used, misused and not used and how they can harm started to percolate. It meshed with entombment and Cass McBride was both born and buried at the same time.

I wrote the first draft in Alaska, then moved to Texas where I did revisions, sold the book and did all the edits. Moved right into the light. (Giles, 2013).

Genre

Horror

Curriculum Ties

The book has been included in the California Department of Education's database of Recommended Literature.  It might work well in an English class; it could spur a discussion of point of view and focalization as the book jumps between perspectives and person.

Booktalking Ideas

1. The different points of view might be enticing.

2. I might read a section of the fourth chapter focalized through Cass: 

Oh, god this was real.
'You've figured it out, huh, Cass?'
His voice snapped me back and I could feel him pace back and forth across my...grave.
'This not-talking shit is just pissing me off, Cass.  You don't want to do that.'
More pacing.
I cried, but no sobs. Quiet tears.
'Push in the button that's under your thumb and talk, Cass. I'm warning you. You won't like what happens if you don't.'
His voice was slow and measured.  Serious as -- well, death.  But I didn't answer.  I couldn't.

And what did he expect me to say? (Giles, 2006, p. 31)

Reading Level/Interest Age

9th grade and up.

Challenge Issues

Language, Violence, a girl is buried alive.

I would openly greet any patron who presented a challenge to the work, giving them ample time to detail their complaint.  I would listen attentively.  To respond to these challenges I would have some reviews of the work on hand.   I would be prepared to explain that as a public institution libraries "cannot limit access on the basis of age or other characteristics" (ALA, 1999).  I would have copies of the library's collection policy on hand.  I would be prepared to politely discuss that parents can control what their children are exposed to by coming to the library with them and examining books they check out.  If the Teen Advisory Group had written reviews of the work I'd have them handy.  While it may be of little comfort to certain parents, I would also be prepared to discuss my staunch support of intellectual freedom and abhorrence of censorship.  As a last resort, I would be sure to keep copies or a reconsideration form on hand.
For this book, I would also discuss the fact that it has been included in the California Department of Education's database of Recommended Literature.

Why did you include this book in the titles you selected?

It was recommended by the instructor during a collaborate session.

References

American Library Association. (1999). Strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips 

Giles, G. (2006). What happened to Cass McBride?. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Giles, G. (2013). How I wrote it. Retrieved from http://www.gailgiles.com/How_I_Wrote_Cass_Mc_Bride.html