Orca Book Publishers have been extremely gracious to allow me to review Beyond Repair prior to its release date of April 1, 2011.  The synopsis is as follows: “Since the death of his father, everyone has been telling Cam that he’s the man of the house.  Cam takes his responsibility seriously.  He keeps the grieving household organized and takes care of his sister.  But when the man who had been driving the truck that killed his father seems to be stalking his family, he is not sure he’s up for the task.  How does the man of the house handle a stalker?”

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Orca Book Publishers is an organization that produces fiction for reluctant readers, especially readers on the lower spectrum, with a reading level between second grade and fourth grade.  Beyond Repair comes from the Orca Currents series, which is for those ages 10-14, and is written in a way that the reader, especially a reluctant reader, can easily understand.  

This is a very interesting coming of age novel.  While one could argue that it is about a young man dealing with a possible stalker, it is so much more than that.  Cam must step up and protect his family, but he must also deal with the emotional angst that is eating away at his soul.  At the same time, he must decipher fact from fiction and control his overactive imagination before it gets the best of him. 

I really enjoyed following Cam on his journey to manhood as he tried to make sense of his torn up world.  Peterson does a wonderful job with this story, from the disposition of the characters to the dialogue used within the text.  Although this is a fictional story, it is real on so many levels, and causes the reader to identify with the characters.  There is no down time within the story, and it is very fast paced, which will captivate readers from all different spectrums.  The only downfall to the novel that I can see is that it ends.  I wish it was longer!  Four stars.