How sick is this: I'm the major jock-stud in a high school of over eighteen hundred kids, but my brother has the brain of a badminton birdie and a body to match.

How can you talk to your brother when he can't understand the words? How can you love him when he's so messed up he can't love you back? And how can you have your own life when your father bailed out, making you the "man of the house"?

Paul is full of pent-up rage over his family's tragic circumstances and haunted by his own mistakes. He knows he has to let it all out if he's going to have any kind of future. If he doesn't, he will explode.

*Purchase this book at either store

REVIEW EXCERPTS:
"...a complex and moving portrayal, even with its more conventional main character. Although each novel can stand on its own merits, STUCK IN NEUTRAL and CRUISE CONTROL gain strength when read together, as they form a more complete portrait of a family dealing with the daily heartbreak of Shawn's disability."
~TeenReads.com

"As a young-adult novelist, Terry Trueman has the three Ps covered: his work is powerful, provocative, and poignant...an excellent choice for any book club, as the author examines delicate issues of disability and family dynamics, but it is the voice of Paul, uncertain and emotional, that makes this such an unforgettable book."
~H. Myers, Elliot Bay Book Company Booknotes

"This isn't a sequel so much as a different story based on the same situation; while Paul's narrative doesn't outright contradict Shawn's, its impact is its own, and it may even be more effective read independently. Trueman is humane yet honest in his depiction of the price Paul's family pays ("There's no way I'll ever believe that the problems a brother like Shawn brings to a family are 'gifts from God,'" says his
devoted sister)."
~Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November 2004
RECOMMENDED

"The book [CRUISE CONTROL] certainly can be read independently of STUCK IN NEUTRAL but reading them in sequence gives a unique opportunity to look at perspective in writing."
~The Yellow Book Road - Books for Educators, Parents & Kids!

"Writing from the perspective of Paul McDaniel, star athlete and brother of Shawn McDaniel, Trueman takes up the story he began in his award winning STUCK IN NEUTRAL . . . the conflict development throughout the book brilliantly portrays the emotional distress of a teenager who must cope with a handicapped sibling."
~James Blasingame, 4Q 4P VOYA, October 2004

Cruise Control JS (starred Review)"This companion novel to Trueman's acclaimed Stuck in Neutral . . is a disturbing but ultimately hopeful tale about anger and love and a must read for anyone who read Stuck in Neutral . . ."
~Kliatt, September 2004

CRUISE CONTROL is sometimes a disturbing book, as when the reader is taken into Paul's head as he beats up a complete stranger, or when Paul and his equally angry friend Tim drive drunk. Although STUCK IN NEUTRAL was perhaps a more powerful book, in part because of its unusual and surprising narrator, CRUISE CONTROL is still a complex and moving portrayal, even with its more conventional main character.
~TeenReads.com