She smiled tentatively at two girls in the front of the row, but they were talking to each other and did not seem to notice her, so she let her eyes shift away from them and clung tightly to the smile, as though it had not been for them at all but for some private joke that had come suddenly into her mind. The character-portraits are quite well done, and Duncan shows some real writing chops in a few scenes and images, such as early on when Susan enters class: Īnd Mark already has a plan, complete with alibi - David, the class president - and decoy - Susan, who has no connection to them but does have a thing for Dave, and could thus be made to go along with this.ĭavid and Susan let themselves be talked into this participating in this scheme, and the kidnapping goes off without much of a hitch.īut after that things don't quite so well, and Mark's plan turns out to have a few weak spots after all, with small mistakes here and there also threatening to lead back to the perpetrators.īut Mark, who turns out to have no scruples (nor much of anything else inside him) keeps trying to fix things - and with even Susan arguing: 'Mark has to know everything, or he won't be able to tell us what to do', he's able to lead them - on past any point of return.Īmbitious, hard-working David, whose father abandoned the family and who lives with his mother and grandmother, and Susan, who has a loving family with several siblings but feels like an outcast in school succumb to the peer pressure that the manipulative Mark uses so well, and and the difficulty of escaping from Mark's clutches once they're part of the plan is presented fairly convincingly.

Mr.Griffin may not deserve to be killed, but he should be taught a lesson, so maybe kidnapping him and putting him in his place isn't that unreasonable a plan. 'Well, why don't we then ?' Mark asked him.įriends Jeff and Betty are under Mark's sway, and willing to listen to his harebrained schemes. Mark, who is already repeating the class because of past failures, should know better, but even an otherwise A-student like Susan is somewhat frustrated because he is such a tough grader.Īfter class, when someone observes: 'That Griffin's the sort of guy you'd like to kill' Mark pounces on the idea:

The demanding Mr.Griffin pushes them hard - and doesn't accept excuses.

Griffin begins with a cross-section of students from Brian Griffin's English class who are angry at their teacher. Griffin was made into a movie in 1997, directed by Jack Bender Includes a Q & A with the author by Barry Lyga.

General information | our review | links | about the author Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Killing mr griffin audio book