Harmless

Reinhardt, Dana. 2007. Harmless. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN 9780385746991

Plot Summary

Three freshmen at a private day school – Anna, Emma, and Mariah – lie to their parents so they can go to a party at the house of Mariah’s boyfriend, a senior at a local public high school. The lie works the first time, so they decide to do it again. The second time, however, their parents catch them in the lie and the girls decide to make up a story about having been attacked to explain their whereabouts. What they thought would be a harmless lie spirals out of control, putting them at the center of a community wide effort to find the perpetrator. As the lie continues to take on a life of its own, the girls drift apart. Anna enjoys the attention she is receiving, Miranda wishes it would all go away, and Emma struggles to come to terms with what happened to her at the first party when she was intoxicated. Eventually, after an innocent man is arrested for the “attack”, the girls have to face the consequences for telling a lie that was not at all harmless.

Critical Analysis

Harmless explores the damage that can be caused by a single lie. “Reinhardt successfully avoids a sanctimonious tone in imparting this moral lesson and infuses the story with enough drama to avoid banality.” (Kirkus Reviews) The story unfolds through first person narratives, each chapter presents one girl’s narrative of what happened, her thoughts and reactions, and her interpretation of the actions of the other characters. The alternating viewpoints help to create a compelling story. The girls come from dissimilar families and are at different stages of sexual awakening, which leads each girl to have a different interpretation of the events as they unfold. The setting of a private school, in a small community, means none of the girls are able to escape the continuous scrutiny of the police, their families, and the community.

Woven through the plotline of the consequences of the lie is another plotline about the emotional costs and traps of romantic relationships and sexual activity. Miranda learns that her boyfriend is only interested in one thing, and it does not include truly getting to know her, or taking her to his prom. Miranda eventually finds someone who is truly interested in her, only to lose him once the truth about the “attack” comes out. Anna finds that she likes being the center of attention, especially the attention she receives from one crime show obsessed boy, but he loses interest when her story unravels. Emma’s story is the most compelling, she is struggling to come to terms with a sexual encounter she had when she was drunk. Emma is withdrawn and troubled, and everyone assumes it is because of her narrow escape during the “attack”, which makes it even harder for her to process what really happened. “Teens will be drawn into the drama of how smart people can sometimes do stupid things, and will be satisfied with the difficult resolution each girl ultimately must face.” (School Library Journal)

There is one unfortunate aspect of the novel’s exploration of the idea that “when it comes to sex, the spectrum from what is completely healthy and consensual to what is clearly rape is a long and very murky line.” This line is made even murkier by the addition of accusations of sexual harassment by a former student of Emma’s father. The accusations are not explored or resolved sufficiently, and only serve to confuse the issue.



Review Citations

2007. "Harmless." Kirkus Reviews 75, no. 3: 158.

Carhart, Jo-Ann. 2007. "Harmless." School Library Journal 53, no. 6: 71.