[In] "Second Heaven," Judith Guest brings her own passionate moral concerns to a fine, old-style, high-drama confrontation with evil. (p. 12)

As in "Ordinary People," the teen-age boy in "Second Heaven" is evoked with great tenderness and insight. When Miss Guest curves her writing arm about the shoulders of a troubled boy he must sooner or later yield up his heart and mind to her, no matter how hard he tries to hold back.

The book's suspenseful climax is the custody hearing…. The result is a rousing three-cheers-for-love dénouement. Yet this reader must withhold one of those cheers. For one thing, "love—that most passionate of religions" is called upon to redress so much that it hardly seems fair—or plausible. Gale has deep emotional problems. He has been abused for years and has repressed all feeling. He cannot bear to be touched. He communicates in some ways...