3.5/5 stars
Bloomsbury, 2013
369 pages
YA Contemporary
Scheduled to release February 26
Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
For a main character who is supposed to be smart, Evelyn sure is an idiot. In order to get her parents' attention, she decides to become "bad Evelyn." This means partying, drinking, smoking pot, and engaging in repeated acts of unprotected sex. When this unsurprisingly results in pregnancy, she withdraws and tries to ignore it, rejecting talking and making decisions. Once she does decide to carry the baby to term, she continues to reject everyone and avoids making decisions. I know she's in a tough situation and at only sixteen, she's largely incapable of maturity, but I just wanted to slap her at some points. As she grows to realize, she is surrounded by a group of people who will support her, provided she ask for some assistance and shares her feelings. That's ALL she has to do but she's mostly too stupid to do it.
At the beginning of the book, Evelyn is meeting with Mary from Planned Parenthood to discuss her options. She hates her parents: her cheating father who left them and her silent mother, who allowed him to come back for the sake of maintaining appearances. Although she had previously been the model daughter, she had rebelled (with long-term hookup Todd) in order to gain their attention. Her pregnancy is ultimately successful in this goal. After dithering for pages, she decides she still wants to continue to attend school but she does not want any one to know. Thus she moves from Florida to Chicago to live with her beloved Aunt Linda, her partner, and their children. The rest of the book follows Evelyn with them, as she continues to make no decisions or rushes through decisions only to regret them.
Although we have to spend our time in Evelyn's head with all her stupid thoughts, we still get to meet some characters who are actually endearing. Chief among them are Evelyn's adorable cousins Tammy and Cecelia. They are the sweetest cutest little girls and their innocent love and adoration of Evelyn was a much-needed pick-me-up. Another great character was Maryellie, a fellow pregnant student but her boyfriend is actually happy about the baby and her family is rallying around her to help her raise her child.
While I hope this review captures how annoying I found Evelyn, I can easily say that the writing was very engaging and the countdown to birth made the pages turn easily. The additional bright spots of Tammy and Cecelia and basically every character who wasn't Evelyn or the baby father Todd helped me get through the book.
Cover: Hair color and girl made of skin and bones is quite accurate actually so kudos for that-I also love the baby bump drawn on.
Question: I've read a couple of books about teen pregnancy now, always focused on the girl's perspective. Are you familiar with any that focus on the guy's? Or alternate between the two? If so, please leave a recommendation below (even if you didn't like it).
Other Opinions:
A Good Addiction
Blkosiner's Book Blog
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Once Upon a Prologue
