Story of a Girl (National Book Award Finalist)

As a reader I am always taken aback when I come across a book that feels real. The kind that brings you into its story with a character you'd swear is alive. This is such a book. The story takes place during Deanna's summer going into her junior year of high school. But, the chapters are flickering with back story that give us a strong sense of Deanna's past (when she was thirteen her dad caught her having sex with a seventeen year old in the back of a car; she endures ensuing rumors, which leave her looking like a "skank" in the eyes of her peers). The urgency for Deanna to face her past pulses as she begins to crumble and fall apart before the reader's eyes. I think what struck me most with this book is how Deanna Lambert grows without any sort of "token" from the outside world involved (she does get a job at a pizza place, but it's not the ultimate conduit of change). And that's important, that change occurs out of her NEED to change. How often do we come across a character who changes during the course of a story without some sort of contrived experience to catapult her forward? Deanna has her past and her present. That's all. She grows out of a WILLINGNESS to change and strengthen. She's tired of who she has become and right before she falls apart, confronts those demons of her past so she can move forward. Zarr gives her reader hope: it doesn't take money, weaponry, magical elves, potions, adventures or heroes to pull a person out of desperation. All it takes is what we have: a mind, a voice and a willingness to forgive.

Sara Zarr's Story of a Girl is a tale of the outsider. Deanna's father catches her having sex at the age of thirteen, and from then on he can't trust her. He has a very distant relationship with his daughter. The boy Deanna was having sex with, Tommy, spreads the news and everyone labels her a slut. People taunt her, even though two years later Tommy has been the only boy she's been with. Deanna wants to move out with her brother and his girlfriend, but she's a third wheel in regards to them. Deanna's two best friends, Lee and Jason, are a couple and Deanna feels left out with them as well. She is painfully alone, but at the same time she moves forward by getting her first job. The goal she has in mind is to leave her parents' house and her small town, and all the heartache that she attributes to those settings. I felt for the main character and rooted for her. This novel is a short read, but there's a big story and plenty of emotion in it.

I had high hopes for this book, but nd I have to admit when I started reading it my first impression was that it was a bit slow. This took me longer to read than most books, because every so often I would get bored with it. I think for me, I like books that are plot-driven, and this really is not. It's very introspective, and it's nice to really get into Deanna's head, but in my opinion it makes for kind of a slow read. Although I felt like a lot of the relationships depicted in the book were raw and really realistic, I kept feeling like the relationship between Deanna and her father was a little too over the top to be believable. I felt like they should have made more progress in their relationship in three years, especially since Deanna seems not to have put a foot wrong in those three years. Since they were so close before the incident when Deanna was thirteen, it felt a little off to me that their relationship would break down so completely and just stay broken for years. In contrast, I thought Deanna's relationship with her brother was very authentic, and I loved the book's portrayals of her friendships with Lee and Jason. Zarr does a wonderful job in portraying the ups and downs of friendships - especially the difficulties of trios - and I liked the way the relationships between Deanna, Lee and Jason grow and change throughout the book. Zarr definitely has a great understanding of how teenage relationships work, and it was nice to see such a real depiction of that. I did like the messages that Story of a Girl communicated, about how stifling life in a small town can be, and the injustice of how one poor choice in your past can completely change how you are perceived by your peers. Story of a Girl makes the reader really think about the importance of reputation, and examines just how misleading a person's reputation can be. Story of a Girl was, for the most part, an interesting read and an honest, gritty depiction of small town life. It's not a light read and it's not meant to be. It definitely carries an important message to teens, in a way that might actually reach them. It wasn't a personal favorite of mine, but it's a book that has value and I can see why it has so many good reviews.

Okay so i thought that this would be an interesting book and have a bit of deapth however it was exactly like somehing you read at school when they are trying to get you to read and warn off all things "bad"