Release Date: August 27, 2013
Goodreads Page
This review describes an uncorrected proof. The published version may be different.
My mom's comments:
What if you had to lose something, but you got to choose what it would be? What if you had to choose between family loyalty and new love? Many of us face these choices, but we never get to find out how it would have turned out if we'd chosen differently. In this novel, Caroline lives both outcomes of a vital choice, and the results reveal much about the importance of choosing well.
The authors of this book up the intellectual ante of the YA genre, with engrossing results. Caroline travels a more complex mental road than most protagonists of other teen novels. At the beginning, she must choose between staying at home with her dying grandmother and going to a party where she might find romance. The chapters alternate between parallel descriptions of these two outcomes. Although the outcomes are different, both paths lead Caroline to a deeper maturity and a broadened understanding of life.
Caroline's parents are especially notable characters. They present differently in the two plot lines, and the contrast reveals a complexity of character that most YA titles lack. Although, as a grandmother, I disliked the sexual situations and the plotline of high schoolers dating college boys, I appreciated the complex approach to character, the theme of reconciliation, and the discussion of choice vs. fate.
This book is targeted at teenaged girls, but I would also recommend it to parents who want to understand the issues their daughters grapple with. In fact, the themes are so universal that many people would enjoy the book.
My students and my mother agree on one thing: This book is solid! Go buy a copy at The Blue Manatee or your nearest independent bookseller!
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