Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
Genres: angst, teenage
Synopsis: "I was thirteen when my dad caught me with Tommy Webber in the back of Tommy's old Buick, parked next to the old Chart House down in Montara at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night. Tommy was seventeen and the supposed friend of my brother, Darren. I didn't love him. I'm not sure I even liked him." In a moment Deanna Lambert's teenage life is changed forever. Struggling to overcome its lasting repercussions and the stifling role of 'school slut,' she longs to escape a life defined by her past.
Audiobook: Appears to be available to download.
Review:
I knew I would cry before I even started reading this book, and I did, quite a bit. The novel is about a sixteen-year-old girl whose life is defined by something that happened when she was just thirteen; being found having sex with a boy. Her father still blames her, and most of the people in her small town know what happened - or rather, have heard a variation on what happened. Despite the fact that she's only ever been with one boy in her life, she has a reputation as a slut, and receives all kinds of crap because of it. There's also the added complication that her older brother got his girlfriend pregnant, and they and their baby daughter now live in the basement of her house.
It's an excellently written novel. It feels real, the characters are all well written, and the emotional punch is just right. According to the front cover, the book was a finalist for the National Book Award (which nation I'm not sure...) and it thoroughly deserved it. It's the kind of book I could imagine schools putting on their reading syllabuses, but as an adult I can easily say that it's not only suitable for teenagers, I thought it was one of the best books I've read in quite a while.
Synopsis: "I was thirteen when my dad caught me with Tommy Webber in the back of Tommy's old Buick, parked next to the old Chart House down in Montara at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night. Tommy was seventeen and the supposed friend of my brother, Darren. I didn't love him. I'm not sure I even liked him." In a moment Deanna Lambert's teenage life is changed forever. Struggling to overcome its lasting repercussions and the stifling role of 'school slut,' she longs to escape a life defined by her past.
Audiobook: Appears to be available to download.
Review:
I knew I would cry before I even started reading this book, and I did, quite a bit. The novel is about a sixteen-year-old girl whose life is defined by something that happened when she was just thirteen; being found having sex with a boy. Her father still blames her, and most of the people in her small town know what happened - or rather, have heard a variation on what happened. Despite the fact that she's only ever been with one boy in her life, she has a reputation as a slut, and receives all kinds of crap because of it. There's also the added complication that her older brother got his girlfriend pregnant, and they and their baby daughter now live in the basement of her house.
It's an excellently written novel. It feels real, the characters are all well written, and the emotional punch is just right. According to the front cover, the book was a finalist for the National Book Award (which nation I'm not sure...) and it thoroughly deserved it. It's the kind of book I could imagine schools putting on their reading syllabuses, but as an adult I can easily say that it's not only suitable for teenagers, I thought it was one of the best books I've read in quite a while.