After moving out of the Projects and into an apartment building in a slightly less dangerous part of town, high school student Jasmine Price and her mother befriend an elderly neighbor, Mrs. Fieldings.
While her mother works two jobs—and her father is serving overseas in the Army—Jasmine often spends time after school in the company of Mrs. Fieldings, who becomes her surrogate grandmother. As their friendship blossoms, Jasmine comes to call her “Bibi,” a term of respect and endearment.
The move also includes a transfer to a new high school, where Jasmine becomes the target of bullying and intimidation, mostly by her fellow players on the girls’ basketball team.
A short time after the first incident at school, Bibi introduces Jasmine to her three-horned Jackson’s chameleon named Mlinzi. The lizard’s colors change during the encounter, indicating an immediate trust and affection for Jasmine. Noting this, Bibi gifts the chameleon to Jasmine, who renames him Jackson.
Meanwhile, the baseless hatred toward Jasmine escalates at school until she is cornered in an alley by the basketball team’s captain, Nevaeh, who accuses Jasmine of making a play for her boyfriend. It becomes clear that Nevaeh intends to kill Jasmine—until something preternatural intercedes…
Christopher Ochs masterfully introduces all the key players in medias res and maintains steady tension throughout this believable tale of girl-on-girl bullying in an urban public school. There are scenes in which the dialogue among the teenagers is more mature than expected, given their callow and puerile behavior in other parts of the story. However, Jasmine’s brief transformation from prey to predator as a result of her relationship to the creature is well crafted. I applaud the portrayal of Jasmine’s mother as a harried, and mostly absent, mother struggling to make ends meet while dealing with her daughter’s deteriorating situation and fretting about her husband after he is wounded in the line of duty in Afghanistan. Overall, the blending of the harsh realities of inner city life with the fantastical elements of a unique monster story is both seamless and subtle.
