Plan B by Charnan Simon

Photo taken from Goodreads

Book Info

Title:  Plan B 

Author:  Charnan Simon

Publisher:  Lerner Publishing Group

Publication Date:  3/1/2011 

Language: English 

Format:  Digital copy 

Pages:  104 pages 

ISBN-13:  9780761361497

Source:  Advanced reader's digital copy from Lerner Publishing Group, via NetGalley
*Part of my Mini Reading Challenge*  

Buy this book on Amazon 

Summary

From Lerner Publishing Group:  

"Is this happily ever after?

Lucy has her life planned out: she'll graduate and then join her boyfriend, Luke, at college in Austin. She'll become a Spanish teacher and of course they'll get married. So there's no reason to wait, right? They try to be careful. But then Lucy gets pregnant. Now, none of Lucy's options are part of her picture-perfect plan. Together, she and Luke will have to make the most difficult decision of their lives."

Review

After reading After - isn't that funny? - by Amy Efaw, I was hoping to read a similar story with a different take, something more accepting of their situation, unlike Devon and her denial.  I wanted something like Juno or like Allison in Knocked Up.  That is why I decided to request for this book on NetGalley.

This book had so much potential, but never unraveled.  And I am not complaining about this book's length.  Good stories do not need hundreds of pages.  But it would have been great if the author was able to elaborate further on the effects of teenage unprotected premarital sex.  Luke and Lucy were very credible as lovesick and lovestruck teenagers.  They were very in love with each other, but the quick shift into Lucy's pregnancy also created a confusing shift in their characters.  I felt that Luke's sudden change from scared and irresponsible boy to dependable and mature adult was too hurried and unreal, in that it still felt like he was still acting under his parents' influence.  It did not feel like how a real responsible teenager would act under the circumstances.  I'm not saying that a real teen would immediately accept whatever happened, but the phases that he would go through would be very obvious and notable that when he finally accepts his responsibility, everything has fallen into place naturally.  Lucy, on the other hand, was the perfect scared and confused pregnant teen.  Between these two, I would have preferred more communication and action to have happened before the final outcome.  

Another problem I had was that this book was supposed to show Luke and Lucy's Plan B.  However, even towards the end, they were still undecided about what that plan would be.  The readers are left hanging as to the characters' futures and though sometimes it's good to make your own guess, I would have liked a more black and white ending for this story as I felt it required more specific answers for its very specific topic.  

On the bright side, the author was able to perfectly portray the causal relationship between unprotected sexual contact and growing number of teenage pregnancy - and in such limited number of pages at that.  Regardless of the issues I presented above, this story is a good, light, but educational read for teenagers in teaching them about safe sex.  Most reproductive health classes would appear too superficial and feigning concern for the issues but reading this book, not only would teenagers be able to accept and understand the impact of safer sex, they would also be entertained by this light and compelling read that was able to summarily delve into their world without any judgment and prejudice.

And regardless of my negative points, I would still say that I enjoyed this book, although not as much as I enjoyed After, but good enough. 

Rating

If you have any questions on this particular rating, please refer to my ratings system here.

Notice

I received this book free of charge from the publisher, Lerner Publishing Group through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest and truthful review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book. 

Please contact me for questions, comments, and suggestions.   

 

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

 

(Photo taken from Goodreads)

Title:  The Fates Will Find Their Way
Author:  Hannah Pittard
Publisher:  HarperCollins
Publication Date:  1/25/2011

Language: English

Format:  Digital copy

Pages:  155 pages
ISBN-10:  006199605X Hardcover

ISBN-13:  978-0061996054 Hardcover

Source:  Advanced reader's digital copy from HarperCollins, via NetGalley

Buy this book on Amazon
Rating:

The story opens with the disappearance of 16-year old  Nora Lindell, and a speculation of her whereabouts.  However, although she is present almost in the entire story, this is more focused on the life she left behind - the lives of her family, her younger sister and father, her friends, and especially the teenage boys who admired her from a distance.  The book is filled with uncertain fates for Norah, all the while detailing the lives of those teenage boys until they grew to be men and start their own families, each still fantasizing about Norah at the back of their minds.

I cannot connect with this book.  On some levels, I thought it was poignant, endearing, and funny even, but I just could not feel myself getting drawn into reading it.  I finished this book for the sake of finishing it, but I never really appreciated its story much.  Which is not to say that this is a bad book.  Maybe we just lacked chemistry, maybe I just lacked the enough number of brain cells to relate to this one.  If you've been planning to read this, don't let my opinions affect your decision - you might love this in spite of what I said.

Talking about the technical aspects of the story, this is very well-written and eloquent, compelling and wise.  The story is told through a first-person plural point of view of those teenage boys, progressing through their adulthood.  It did drag towards the middle, but the humor and the dreamy quality with which the narration was written would get you through the end.  

The main theme here is 'maybe.'  Maybe Nora died, maybe Nora went somewhere, maybe, maybe maybe.  These teenage boys - though not really obsessed - would often wonder about her and what has happened to her, and conjecture about her disappearance are detailed in this book.  Only the reader could decide which to believe.

What is very noticeable here, however, is how these teenage boys never really got past their young adult years.  They went to college, took wives, had kids, but they could not finally and completely break free from the grasp of youth and in my opinion, Nora's pervasive presence in their minds was the symbolic refusal of their minds to turn adult.  Most of the humor from this book would come from the fact that they never really got over their teenage lives, even fantasizing about a 'hot' mother of one of their friends, going through the same arguments with each other that they've been having since they were young, it was funny to read about grown men trying to act like boys, which hit me that not being able to let go of Nora's memory was equivalent to not being able to let go of their teenage years.

I know that there was so much to like about this book, but I just could not understand why I cannot relate.  Maybe because I took this expecting a story more focused on Nora than these boys.  Again with the maybe.  This book has a lot of that and more, therefore, I say give this book a chance.  Maybe it will end up your favorite.

-----

I received this book free of charge from the publisher, HarperCollins through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest and truthful review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.