Moral Compass: A Novel

Moral Compass by Danielle Steel is different from the authors other novels. It delves into the serious topic of teenage drinking and a female being assaulted. Saint Ambrose Preparatory School is admitting female students for the first time in its history. Taylor Houghton IV, the headmaster, knows that his career is on the line so this venture must be a success. There are no problems until Halloween arrives and some students decide to bring out alcohol they have sneaked onto campus. Campus security receive a late night anonymous call that has them finding a female student unconscious. She must have her stomach pumped from the vast quantities of alcohol consumed and a SAFE exam performed. The book follows the investigation along with the trial and its outcome. We see the consequences of making the decision to overindulge in alcohol and how it affects others. I thought the story was well-written and it proceeded at a steady pace. I like how the author dealt with the such terrible and relevant topic of violence against a young woman. Moral Compass is a timely novel (what people call “ripped from the headlines”) that hopefully will allow people to see that the victim should not be blamed when they are assaulted. The victim is not on trial nor should they be. Moral Compass allows readers to see this sensitive issue dealt with from various points-of-view. Moral Compass is a compelling story whose title truly fits.

Moral Compass takes a hard look at how one bad decision can lead to another in an almost snowball effect. Of course, there's a bit more to it than that, and that one bad decision is compounded by someone who acts without a care for who he hurts. The premise for this book drew me in, and I did find the many different viewpoints intriguing. Yes, I completely believe that the victim should be the first and foremost consideration in a situation like this, but realistically, that isn't always the case, and Danielle Steel gives us the situation from every avenue, including those with varying degrees of guilt and their parents. To be honest, I'd like to think that people who would react as deplorably as a couple of these characters are few and far between, but the fact remains that we see similar actions all too often. As for this particular story, I will say that I had a fair bit of trouble getting into it. The beginning was rather slow, and the introductions to a considerable number of characters are all crammed into the first several pages. The problem with that is it amounts to information dumps rather than giving us the various details more organically throughout the story. The latter method works much better for me, and I'm more likely to remember the details later on when it's not all thrown at me at once while I'm waiting for the story to get moving. The writing style for Moral Compass was a bit on the dry side, and at times it felt more like a documentary than a story playing out before us. There wasn't nearly as much dialogue as I would've expected, and it all amounted to more telling than showing. We also get several little side stories about the various parents, teachers, and even a touch of romance for one character, and to be honest, some of that felt a little like filler to me. Not all of it, by any means. Basically, some of the situations with the parents and others were important to the story and others - well, not so much. Nevertheless, the subject matter did hold my interest, and I did feel compelled to keep reading. I wanted to know how everything would play out for the characters, and what decisions they would ultimately make. In the end, Moral Compass has a bit of a lesson in its story. A lesson about choosing the right path, and when we don't make the right choice, accepting the consequences for our actions. It's a lesson some of the characters had to learn the hard way, and it was an interesting road they traveled to get there.

A riveting story that I had a hard time putting down. How one night that starts out of innocence of fun will change of the lives of seven teenagers. An elite prep school has accepted females for the first time under much controversy and now a night of drinking that ends up with a rape of a fellow student. I must say I was a little confused in the beginning with so many characters and had to go back to see who was who, but was still engrossed with the story. This is a delicate topic that was well written. I highly recommend this book.