Jo Beckett is 17, that tender age when the hormones are jumping and it’s sometimes hard to think straight. Thoughts keep swirling in her head, especially after sex with a guy. She ignores warning signs like the fact that he’s not asking how she feels, whether she’s comfortable or whether she’d like to wait. She DOESN’T want to wait. Why should she when they’re both of consensual age and they both want it? She’s not necessarily a progressive girl. She’s just up front about she wants in bed and she sees no reason to play the flirt or tease.
In spite of her hoydenish ways, Jo desperately craves romance, the kind that supposedly leads to happily ever after. No one ever told her that it’s both fine to have romance or that she’s also a little young to have it presented to her and expect it to last forever. Jo is filled with love to give but not necessarily the conversational tools to connect with others.
This novel is about Jo’s learning what it means to speak up for what she really wants: from her mother, her stepdad, her male friends and her would-be female friends. Being a tomboy from when she was young, she thinks she prefers straight-talking boys to girls who speak in frustrating riddles. It takes being insulted by her former sex partners she thought respected her to understand that it’s not so great being one of the boys.
Jo learns to hold hard conversations with various characters throughout the book as she realizes that she really didn’t talk to others as she should have. Her best friend who presumably cut off Jo after Jo’s father died and took a new girlfriend was staying away because she couldn’t stand funerals and thought Jo needed space. The boys who used her for practice didn’t know she wanted romantic gestures because she never asked for them. She just let them hurriedly kiss her and reach for her zippers. She never asked them what they wanted from her either. Did sleeping together mean they were transformed into boyfriend and girlfriend? Could they go on dates? Would he bring her flowers?
This is one of the frankest YA novels about sex, relationships, dating and maintaining relationships with others that I’ve ever read. It’s a reminder to older people that being young isn’t the rosy nostalgic era they think they remember and a comfort blanket to adolescents that will have them nodding their heads in recognition.
Who really has inner wisdom at 17 years old? Nobody, that’s who. But it doesn’t hurt to talk to others who may have wisdom to impart. Talk to your girlfriends. Talk to your boyfriends. Talk to adults (gah). Why not? They’ve been through everything teenagers suffered through already. They may not be positive examples but they can be warnings.
In spite of her hoydenish ways, Jo desperately craves romance, the kind that supposedly leads to happily ever after. No one ever told her that it’s both fine to have romance or that she’s also a little young to have it presented to her and expect it to last forever. Jo is filled with love to give but not necessarily the conversational tools to connect with others.
This novel is about Jo’s learning what it means to speak up for what she really wants: from her mother, her stepdad, her male friends and her would-be female friends. Being a tomboy from when she was young, she thinks she prefers straight-talking boys to girls who speak in frustrating riddles. It takes being insulted by her former sex partners she thought respected her to understand that it’s not so great being one of the boys.
Jo learns to hold hard conversations with various characters throughout the book as she realizes that she really didn’t talk to others as she should have. Her best friend who presumably cut off Jo after Jo’s father died and took a new girlfriend was staying away because she couldn’t stand funerals and thought Jo needed space. The boys who used her for practice didn’t know she wanted romantic gestures because she never asked for them. She just let them hurriedly kiss her and reach for her zippers. She never asked them what they wanted from her either. Did sleeping together mean they were transformed into boyfriend and girlfriend? Could they go on dates? Would he bring her flowers?
This is one of the frankest YA novels about sex, relationships, dating and maintaining relationships with others that I’ve ever read. It’s a reminder to older people that being young isn’t the rosy nostalgic era they think they remember and a comfort blanket to adolescents that will have them nodding their heads in recognition.
Who really has inner wisdom at 17 years old? Nobody, that’s who. But it doesn’t hurt to talk to others who may have wisdom to impart. Talk to your girlfriends. Talk to your boyfriends. Talk to adults (gah). Why not? They’ve been through everything teenagers suffered through already. They may not be positive examples but they can be warnings.