Lois Duncan

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Widening Horizons: 'Debutante Hill'

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In the following essay, S.B.B. appreciates Lois Duncan's ability to engage readers with her characters in "Debutante Hill," while also noting some issues with character plausibility, particularly regarding Paul's depiction.

Lynn Chambers [protagonist of "Debutante Hill"], pretty and popular high school senior, declines to join the Rivertown debutante group because her father thinks the idea undemocratic. Thus cut off from the social life of her normal circle of friends, and lonely for Paul Kingsley, her "steady," who has gone away to college. Lynn finds herself pushed toward a new series of experiences. Some of them are good, some are bad, but from all of them Lynn learns a lot. The end of the winter season finds her a much wiser and happier girl. Miss Duncan writes exceptionally well, and has the happy ability to make a reader care what happens to her characters. A few places are weak in plausibility, notably Paul's involvement in his first date with Brenda. It makes him more of a spineless wonder than the author has prepared us to believe.

S.B.B., "Widening Horizons: 'Debutante Hill'," in The Christian Science Monitor (reprinted by permission from The Christian Science Monitor; © 1959 The Christian Science Publishing Society; all rights reserved), February 5, 1959, p. 11.

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