Brooks, Martha - True Confessions of a Heartless Girl
I loved Martha Brooks' Two Moons in August back when I was in middle school, which means, of course, that it is now out of print. But I did find this book while looking for the other one, so all is not lost!
Plotline is that Noreen, underage, pregnant, shows up in a town in her boyfriend's truck, which she stole, and impacts the lives of assorted townspeople. It's really a very boring plotline, so I won't go into much detail here. I continue to like Brooks on the strength of this one and the remembered strength of her other book, and perversely, what I like the most in this book is Noreen's geniune unlikeability. She really does seem to be a heartless girl, and I like how she doesn't just waltz into town and la-de-dah miraculously transform everyone's lives and makes them all better by letting them heal her poor, broken self. She probably causes more trouble than she's really worth for most people.
I was a bit squicked by how Noreen and her boyfriend's storyline turned out, given that she was a teenager and pregnant, and well, squick!
Mostly I like the book because I don't really like Noreen that much. Brooks lets me see enough of Noreen so that I can see how she lashes out against everything, how all the inner anger and frustration comes out and hurts people, and even though she really does mean well at times, she is often a selfish, self-centered teenager, which is the way it should be. I'm not particularly fond of reading stories about saintly teens with "issues" that are solved much too quickly. I also liked most of the townspeople and how real they felt. I think Brooks stays away from idealizing her characters, so that each of them feel very human, with breaking points and the like. They feel like they get tired and weary and grumpy, unlike many of the shinier people in fiction.
Plotline is that Noreen, underage, pregnant, shows up in a town in her boyfriend's truck, which she stole, and impacts the lives of assorted townspeople. It's really a very boring plotline, so I won't go into much detail here. I continue to like Brooks on the strength of this one and the remembered strength of her other book, and perversely, what I like the most in this book is Noreen's geniune unlikeability. She really does seem to be a heartless girl, and I like how she doesn't just waltz into town and la-de-dah miraculously transform everyone's lives and makes them all better by letting them heal her poor, broken self. She probably causes more trouble than she's really worth for most people.
I was a bit squicked by how Noreen and her boyfriend's storyline turned out, given that she was a teenager and pregnant, and well, squick!
Mostly I like the book because I don't really like Noreen that much. Brooks lets me see enough of Noreen so that I can see how she lashes out against everything, how all the inner anger and frustration comes out and hurts people, and even though she really does mean well at times, she is often a selfish, self-centered teenager, which is the way it should be. I'm not particularly fond of reading stories about saintly teens with "issues" that are solved much too quickly. I also liked most of the townspeople and how real they felt. I think Brooks stays away from idealizing her characters, so that each of them feel very human, with breaking points and the like. They feel like they get tired and weary and grumpy, unlike many of the shinier people in fiction.