Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (NY: Dutton, 2010).

One Will Grayson lives in Evanston, Illinois, has doctor parents, and an exuberant best friend named Tiny (who is anything but). Tiny is always in love, and he's gay. Will is not gay, and he has two main rules for his life: keep quiet and don't care too much. When he doesn't obey these rules, things tend to go wrong for him. Tiny wants to push Will outside of his comfort zone, but Will resists.

The other Will Grayson lives in Naperville, which might as well be another state. His parents are divorced, he has to work at a crappy job, he's taking anti-depressants, and he really doesn't care for his one friend Maura. He'd much rather talk online to Isaac, with whom he believes he's in love, though he really doesn't want to admit to anyone that he's gay.

Told in alternating perspectives by the two Wills, this novel deals with all the issues teens obsess over--friends, love, sex, parents, school, the future, etc. The characters are compelling and the plot moves along well. I enjoyed the way the lives of the two Wills come to intersect and how well drawn the emotions are. This is a fabulously readable novel. Don't miss it! Highly recommended for ages 14 & up. Language, sexual situations, alcohol.

Carrie Pilby

Carrie Pilby by Caren Lissner (2003; NY: Harlequin Teen, 2010).

Carrie Pilby is a nineteen-year-old Harvard graduate living alone in New York City and trying to gain the social skills she never learned. She skipped three grades and trusted her father's "Big Lie" that she would finally meet people like herself in college. Instead, she had a brief affair with a pervy English professor and became disgusted with her fellow students' twin obsessions: liquor and sex. So she's left in her current predicament of needing to learn how to connect with people. She has a therapist—her father insisted on this—and he outlines some tasks to help her that include: joining an organization and going on a date. If all of this sounds fairly mundane, it would be if not for Carrie's uniquely hilarious, and naturally introspective, perspective on herself, people around her, and her own issues. For instance, because she feels most people are immoral, she approaches her tasks as a way of proving this point. Thus, she joins a church but mainly to demonstrate that it's a cult, and she finds a date in the personal ads with a guy who wants to cheat on his fiancé, so she can rat him out to the fiancé. Circumstances lead her to learn that not everything is as black and white as she assumes—that there's lots of gray space that she must learn to navigate.

Carrie is such a wonderful character I hated for this novel to end. Her analysis of the college social scene is horrifically honest yet spot on. While her situation merits sympathy, she's not pathetic because she has such a strong sense of her own self-worth, and she's willing to bend a bit by the end of the novel. Kudos to Harlequin Teen for reissuing this excellent YA read (originally published in 2003). Highly recommended for ages 14 & up, especially socially awkward overachievers. Sexual situations, language, alcohol.

The Man of my Dreams

The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld (NY: Random House, 2006).

Make no mistake, despite the title, Sittenfeld writes top-notch realistic fiction. With Prep, she established a scathingly honest voice for adolescent turmoil in the prep school world. The Man of My Dreams begins in a similar world--fourteen-year-old Hannah Gavener's attempts at understanding how love will fit into her life. She's convinced that it should--she follows the love lives of celebrities and sees her cousin through a succession of relationships. Her own parents' relationship is tumultuous. Her father's controlling ways contribute to the demise of the marriage, and Hannah isn't sure what to believe about sex, love, or marriage, though she remains sure they're something she should want. The novel follows her journey through her twenties, skipping through to the choices Hannah makes in her relationships with men, while continuing to learn about love through others' experiences as well. Hannah's struggles will touch anyone who has wondered if there is any grain of truth in the cultural fantasy of a happy, enduring relationship. Who benefits from the fantasy? Or is it a trap?

Deeper than standard chick lit fare, The Man of My Dreams is great read for women--and men--who ponder the place of relationships--and the cultural myths surrounding them--in their lives.

Girlfriend Material

Girlfriend Material by Melissa Kantor (NY: Hyperion, 2009)

This novel explores many different types of relationships, not just romantic ones, as the title might imply. Sixteen-year-old Kate's summer plans change dramatically when her mom and dad decide to spend some time apart, which ends up meaning that Kate and her mom fly to Cape Cod from their Salt Lake City home to spend the summer with some old friends of her mom's. Kate remembers having a great time ten years earlier with their daughter, so she agrees to go, albeit reluctantly. Many struggles await Kate as she tries to make sense of emotional complexities she's never had to deal with before--her best friend dating a jock, her mother flirting with an old friend, the daughter treating Kate like an old sock, her own attempts to find a comfort zone in a completely different environment where she has to adjust her expectations--about herself and everyone else--regularly. High school readers will enjoy this coming-of-age novel. Language, mature themes.