The 1995 YA novel, College Weekend, opens with Tina in a superexcited mood.

She is going to be spending the weekend up at Patterson College, where she’ll finally be reunited with her boyfriend, Josh!  Josh is a year older than Tina and, while she’s finishing up her senior year at Shadyside High, Josh has been busy in college, collecting rocks and studying geology.  Tina is so excited to have the chance to spend the weekend with Josh that she’s even willing to agree to her parents’ demand that she take her boy-crazy cousin Holly with her.

Awwwwwwwwww!  Long distance relationships are so sweet!

Unfortunately, when Tina arrives on campus, she is met not by Josh but instead by Josh’s roommate, Chris.  Chris explains that Josh is up in the mountains on a Geology field trip.  He thought he would be home in time to pick up Tina but apparently, he had car trouble.  Chris volunteers to show Tina and Holly around the campus and Tina agrees, even though she can’t help but feel that there’s something that Chris isn’t telling her.  (This is one of those books that could only have been written in the days when everyone was dependent on landline phones.)  Chris, Tina, Holly, and some others go to a party that night and …. HOLLY DISAPPEARS!

Tina is definitely concerned but Chris tells her not to worry about it.  In fact, having heard that Tina is an aspiring model, Chris explains that he’s related to a famous photographer and that he has his own studio.  In fact, Chris is willing to take some professional-quality pictures of Tina.  He even has some clothes for her to wear, clothes that belonged to a former girlfriend who just happened to look a lot like Tina …. yikes!

You can probably guess where all of this is leading.  Let’s just say that this turns out to be one truly traumatic college weekend and I have a feeling that Tina will probably want to apply to a different university.  That said, this book does a really good job of capturing just exciting visiting a college campus can seem when you’re still in high school and you’re plotting out your future.  My sisters and I visited a lot of campuses, both during their senior years and mine.  I always enjoyed getting to see all of the different campuses and getting to imagine what it would be like to live on each one.  Of course, I eventually ended up at a school that had a boring campus but a fun student body.

In the end, College Weekend is a fast-paced and entertaining trip to the campus of your nightmares.