In Just Wait, a group of three fourteen-year-old boys abduct their virgin friend, Kent, tie him up, and arrange for a group of five high school senior girls to perform sex on Kent. Now from the publisher's name, Happy Ending Press, you can imagine how everything will progress: the police find Kent, take his statement, follow leads (no red herrings), get warrants, make arrests, get a confession, go to trial, and convict the perpetrators -- all in a sensitive and tactful telling suitable for all but the youngest audiences.

As a police procedural and courtroom drama, Just Wait works fairly well: the police work hard to follow correct procedure and all the lawyers work hard to do the best jobs for their clients. Huls has a good sense of pacing within scenes and creates a natural curiosity about how things will turn out. I think part of my curiosity came from my preestablished expectations of courtroom dramas, where the other shoe always seems to fall. I kept expecting the the bad guy to get a couple of favorable breaks (like inadmissible evidence) that the good guy must overcome. So even though nothing of that sort happens in Just Wait, I think I artificially created tension by drawing on the genre and not from the story itself.

In the last few chapters, the courtroom section gets somewhat preachy and repetitive. For example, Huls includes a lengthy session with the defense lawyers and then an equally long repetition of the same information in the court room, almost word for word. When Kent's psychologist takes the stand, he gives testimony that has little bearing on the case, less bearing on the story, and provides a more-than-obvious warning to parents and moral for the entire tale.

As an examination of a rape victim's emotional trauma, Just Wait does little to make me care about the victim except for general outrage at the crime itself. Kent has a strong character. He comes from a strong home, attends church regularly, and belongs to a youth group (Just Wait) that signed a pact to abstain from sex until marriage. Kent's psychologist never doubts that Kent will recover, and he even speculates that Kent will actually come out stronger because of this negative experience. So Kent never really demonstrates any changes -- except for his ability to forgive the kids that raped him, which doesn't seem too much of a struggle for Kent. At least, we never get to see Kent struggle.

Just Wait skims over many opportunities for much of what I would consider interesting character developments. For example, chapter 21 ends with the arraignment of the accused and the accused getting out on bail. Chapter 22 begins with the trial 25 days later. I would like to have seen more of how Kent feels about having to go to school with his assailants. Chapter 22 skims over Kent's feelings by saying that he just never talked to the other boys and they avoided each other, but that just describes the boys' actions, not their emotions. Kent sheds a lot of tears throughout, but his perfect, humble responses to his experience makes him much less interesting as a main character. What about Kent dealing with reporters from sleazy magazines that hound him as he walks home from school? What about Kent's nervousness as he waits for the results of tests for STDs -- and maybe a false positive result? What about the youth group leader that tries to bar Kent from the Just Wait group because he knows that Kent has had sex? What about Kent remembering his sexual experience whenever he sees a pretty girl and how that changes his relationship with his female friends? Many opportunities existed to show challenges for, conflict within, and development of Kent's character.

In fact, Just Wait doesn't really have a main character, unless you consider the rape itself a character. As you read the text, your understanding of the rape changes and develops, but you never really get to know any one of the characters well. So Just Wait consists of an entire cast of minor characters that never really develop or change in any significant way. Sure, the perpetrators feel remorse and parents wonder where they went wrong, but I never got a satisfying feeling of knowing or caring about any particular character.

Even though Just Wait missed many opportunities to involve me emotionally, I enjoyed reading the story as a light suspense novel. Huls has a good sense of pace; writes clean, plausible scenes; and has a knack for writing snappy dialogue.