A story of three girls: Nina, Avery, and Mel. The story opens at the beginning of the Summer when Nina goes away to leadership camp and meets Steve, while Avery and Mel stay home and discover each other. Yes, it's girl meets boy and girl meets girl (combined with the ever popular girl loses boy and girl loses girl to keep things dramatic). By the end of the novel, there will be plenty of love lost and friendships gained.
I'm probably making it sounds like this was a bad novel (it isn't). It's just terribly long and has a storyline that just keeps going and going without much regard for a dramatic arch. It is also a bit uneven in style and quality throughout (some sections really suck you in and others just drag on and one). But there is something to say about a novel about freindship that treats teen gays as really just normal teens (neither freaky nor unusually sophisticated). I'm beginning to really appreciate Johnson as a writer but this earlier novel is eclipsed by her later work. It's good, but not great.
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4 comments:
Hi there, just wanted to say I love your blog! It's great that YA fiction can be appreciated by men and women of all ages. I enjoy reading your comments and have bought a whole bunch of great new books that you've recommended. Love them all. Keep it up!
-PK
Thanks! I appreciate the encouragement. I know that I sometimes savage people's favorites, so it's nice to hear that I also can pick some good ones!
Haha, well, you were pretty scathing about 'the Illustrated Mum' which was one of my childhood faves, but it's always interesting seeing criticism. The only thing is, my bank balance is now suffering as a result. Lol. I've just finished reading 'Dreamland' by Sarah Dessen - I don't think you've reviewed it on here, but i've seen you mention Sarah Dessen, I wonder if you've read it?
Yes, "Dreamland" is in my list of all-time faves! (I have a list on 6/17/05). I stayed up ahlf the night to finish it and cried through the last 50+ pages. I'd consider it my favorite Sarah Dessen novel actually. Unfortunately, I read it before I started keeping the BLOG and I've never gone back and reviewed it, but it is excellent. I wish I knew why Dessen can't score a Printz Award (I think that librarians most be terrible snobs to continually blow off the truly excellent - and commercially successful -- writers). I'm very gald to hear you say that you liked it.
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