Book Log: Just Listen, The Boyfriend List, Goy Crazy

28. Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen

Annabel Greene seemingly had it all: good friends, a close, loving family, good grades and a modeling career - until a traumatic confrontation brought it all crashing down. Annabel, who cannot stomach confrontation of any sort, has spent the summer in self-imposed exile, and she dreads returning to school and facing her ex-friends again. As Annabel struggles to find her place without her friends, she begins an unlikely friendship with Owen, the school loner. Owen, a music addict with his own issues, believes in honesty above all else - a difficult concept for a girl who has trouble with uncomfortable truths. As Owen and his worldview begin to change the way Annabel sees the world, she must deal with both the explosive incident in her past and her family's fragile present.

This book, like all of Sarah Dessen's books, is damn good. Annabel is a mulitfaceted, interesting character with a clear voice, and her slow transformation is uplifting to read. The people around her are sharply rendered, from the backbiting Sophie to the deliberately calm Owen. My favorite characters in the book, however, were her sisters. I loved Annabel's family portrait, past and present, and watching them grow apart and come together was a joy. Sarah Dessen is one of the best teen writers out there. Even though many of the themes of her book seem clichedand overdone, every single one of them without fail is fresh and original and excellent. This book is no exception.

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29. The Boyfriend List, by E. Lockhart

Ruby Oliver is having a tough year. Her boyfriend of six months, Jackson, has dumped her for her best friend Kim. This traumatic turn of events causes Roo to have panic attacks, which lead to her visiting a shrink named Dr. Z. Dr. Z encourages Ruby to write a boyfriend list, a list of all of the boys who have ever had any sort of impact on her life at all. As Ruby goes through the list with Dr. Z, we are treated to past and present glimpses into her life at Tate Prep, as well as her relationship with her friends and her experiences with boys. And just when we think things couldn't get any worse, a rough draft of the list ends up in the hands of Ruby's best-friend-turned-boyfriend-stealer, Kim.

This is a painful book to read out of order. The Boy Book, which I read first, details Ruby's social and emotional healing after the traumatic events of this book. This book has only a little bit of healing - mostly it has emotional pain and social trauma on a major scale. It's an okay book. Ruby's narrative is fast-paced and funny, and her footnotes are a lot of fun. But as always, I find that E. Lockhart's books are not very substantive. A quick, easy read is not a bad thing. But I like my teen fiction with a little more meat, more Sarah Dessen and Maureen Johnson style.

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30. Goy Crazy, by Melissa Schorr

Rachel Lowenstein is 15, and struggling with typical 15-year-old troubles: friend problems, hair problems and school problems. When she meets the perfect guy at her brother's bar mitzvah, things are starting to look up - with one catch. Luke Christiansen isn't Jewish. Convinced that her parents would never approve, Rachel stages elaborate ruses to date him in secret, including pretending to go out with her nerdy neighbor Howard. But as she dates Luke, Rachel struggles with the idea of combining their two religions. How much does Judaism mean to her in the long run? And how much it is she willing to give up for love?

I'm kind of embarrased that I read this book, but once I saw it in the store I kind of had to. A lot of this book felt really stupid to me. I guess they're typical fifteen-year-old things, but a lot of the struggles and internal conflict in the book just felt dumb. In fact, in the last few pages of the book, Rachel's mother sums up pretty much what I was thinking the whole time: that they had no problem with her dating a non-Jew, because aside from the fact that they were pretty liberal, nonpractising Jews, it was probably safe to assume that Rachel wasn't going to end up with the guy she dated when she was fifteen. This book was predictable and annoying, and had very few redeemable qualities.