Ah-ha, but here again Freeze Frame could have become another movie-of-the-week, wrought with heavy-handedness over its topic of teen violence. Instead, Ayarbe introduces school bullies, an adult mentor in the form of a librarian, and Kyle’s new goal of becoming a protector of his best friend’s younger brother. Freeze Frame could have easily become a depressing and wallowing mess. Just as amazingly, once Kyle returns to school and tries to settle back into routine, how does Ayarbe keep up the momentum? Consider that Kyle frequently escapes to his friend’s grave, thinks about ways to die, and relives that fateful day at the shed. For example, how did Ayarbe write over one hundred pages about just one week in Kyle’s life? Even if those chapters centered around the aftermath of the shooting - which includes Kyle’s arrest, trial, and initial meetings with his probation officer - it still blew me away how masterfully Ayarbe stretched such a short timeframe into so many pages. That Ayarbe is able to pull off such a novel is impressive. Yet we still have to care for Kyle because we’re constantly in his head. Furthermore, for the bulk of the book we don’t even know if the death was intentional.
It’s disturbing that Freeze Frame is about a tragedy caused by the main character. Freeze Frame is about a teenage boy who kills his best friend with a gun.
This is the adjective that keeps popping into my mind when thinking about how to describe Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe.
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