This book is more complex that you might think at first glance. I almost didn’t read it. I had thumbed through it once before, and something about one of the characters’ crass remarks about religion put me off (even though I’m not a religious person anymore). However my kid just finished it and started telling me how good it was and I had to stop them from giving me spoilers! So I read it myself- in just a few sittings. I admit it was hard to put down.<\/p>\n
It’s about a girl who goes to a small private high school- her family’s Catholic. Her best friends are opposites- Cat is a “bad girl” who likes wild parties, goes out drinking, and has a new boyfriend every other week (seems like). Laura, next door, is pretty uptight and always trying to do the right thing<\/em>. Laura’s brother Adam has been longing to ask Mads (our protagonist) out, but it’s Cat who’s interested in Adam. Mads isn’t sure who<\/em> she likes. She’s had her first kiss already- an innocent one- and quite a few other awkward ones since, and some for the wrong reasons altogether. Really her favorite things to do are go to baseball games with her father, and watch a crazy-sounding tv show with him. She doesn’t seem to have much interest in boys at all. Which starts some rumors going when some kids start to wonder if she<\/em> has a crush on Cat<\/em>. To make things even more complicated, Mads overhears her father talking to someone she doesn’t know, which raises suspicions that he’s having an affair- but the truth is even more difficult, and was such a stain on the family that nobody will talk about it. Mads and her friends do some sleuthing and finally tease out the truth, and cause some big confrontations. I have to say, this book doesn’t present things the easy way. It’s a strong story about the difficulties faced by gender queer folks who get rejected by their families, and even as Mads is trying to figure everything out, she gets lectures from some family members that go all<\/em> the wrong way<\/em>. Judgmental and full of false information. Mads gets the silent treatment from her own father for a long time, and the cold shoulder from her friends, but she makes new ones, grows closer to her mother, and finds some reconciliation all round in the end. I found some parts of this story that dove into past generations a bit tricky to follow (I like my storylines more linear) but it became clear enough. Too bad that Mads makes some rather poor decisions while she’s exploring who she is, but that only made this story feel all the more honest.<\/p>\n Borrowed from the public library. Out of my kid’s stack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This book is more complex that you might think at first glance. I almost didn’t read it. I had thumbed through it once before, and something about one of the characters’ crass remarks about religion put me off (even though I’m not a religious person anymore). However my kid just finished it and started telling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50,60,65,87],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n