Sara Zarr's debut novel is an emotional and realistic book about a girl whose life is not what she planned. In the novel's opening lines, Deanna, the narrator, tells us: "I was thirteen when my dad caught me with Tommy Webber in the back of Tommy's Buick, parked next to the old Chart House down in Montara at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night. Tommy was seventeen and the supposed friend of my brother, Darren."
Deanna is now sixteen and regretting the choices she has made. Her father hasn't really spoken to her since that night, and Tommy has ruined her reputation by telling his friends what they did. At school her only protection from the slurs and inuendo are her best friends Jason and Lee, who are now dating because she set them up. This development has left her feeling jealous and even more isolated. Her consolation is her older brother, who still lives at home with his girlfriend and their baby April. When she is with them, Deanna feels needed and loved and she formulates a plan to earn money so they can all move out of their parents' depressing, loveless home. Toward this end, she finds a job, but what she doesn't count on is getting a job where she'll have to see Tommy every day.
Going into this book, I expected it to be sort of a sappy, after-school special kind of story. But I am happy to report this novel is nothing of the sort; it is honest and moving and a compelling look at the effects of physical and emotional abuse on a young girl.
