<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6455481-claim-to-fame">Claim to Fame</a> is a book about a child sitcom star who developed the ability to hear everything said about her. Anywhere in the world, if someone mentioned her name, she could hear it.
Yeah okay, Haddix likes to make stories into learning opportunities and morals. I can see her writings being taught in schools. The idea here was that Lindsay Scott, as an actress, was too obsessed with what people thought about her and what was said about her, that she developed this super ability. And it nearly drove her insane.
Haddix does an excellent job with genetics and heredity that you start to believe this could actually happen to someone. It was a detailed, well-developed, thought-provoking read.
My only issue was that it ended too quickly. Once she mastered her power, Lindsay didn't have any goals beyond that. Go to college. Then what? Does she get together with Toby? How does Toby's story work out? There were a lot of good characters that could've made the book twice as long and me twice as happy.
One thing Haddix does that I like is anticipate reader's questions. If she could hear all this stuff, why doesn't the CIA recruit her?
One of the characters explained because she can only hear what's said about her. Then it went into a discussion how people are usually self-centered. Instead of being omniscient, we'd really only want to hear what our neighbors are saying behind our backs. It was a good philosophical discussion.
On the other hand, all the CIA would need to do is announce to the world they have physics listening. Then the terrorists would talk about the physics and bam, there you go.
Anyway, I like Haddix and I like <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6455481-claim-to-fame">Claim to Fame</a>. I just wish it were longer.
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