Young Adult Literature without Apology

Amy's assessment of contemporary young adult literature, organized by author and title, censored by noone.

Realistic | Romance | Science Fiction | Historical Fiction | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

Ruby, Laura (2006). Good Girls. NY: Harper Teen. ISBN: 0060882239.

I think I was attracted to this book for the same feature that will cause others to pick it up: the cool holographic section on the cover! It was this feature, however--along with the hot pink cover and the sort of sexy cover tagline that read: "Every girl has a story. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are both."--that led me to believe that this novel would be kind of kinky chick lit. What a surprise when it turned out that Good Girls would have more in common with Jenny Davis's remarkably sensitive and understated 1995 Sex Education than the "Gossip Girl" experience I had anticipated.

When high achieving high school senior Audrey is caught on camera giving head to a guy at a party, her reputation spirals downward and her closest friendships are tested. The guy in question, a popular boy with whom Audrey has been enjoying a kind of "friends with benefits" relationship, is never revealed as the "subject" of Audrey's amorous activity; Audrey herself gets all the blame and the social black marks that go along with a girl's public admission of sexual activity. This novel was surprisingly feminist, especially after Audrey befriends the two other girls labeled "sluts" (one of whom is a virgin) at her high school and they start to question their freedoms, as girls, to enjoy or even participate in sexual activities. The novel is not graphic in the manner of Judy Blume's Forever; however, it is both honest and somewhat frank in its depiction of sexuality. Audrey's thoughts as she recalls what she and her "boyfriend" did together seem authentic and are realistically tempered with equal parts lust, surprise and squeamishness and it is Ruby's ability to capture these mixed emotions that really make this novel a winner.