Available:*
Material Type | Library | Call Number | Suggested Age | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Cabell County Public Library | LIE | Young Adult | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Sixteen-year-old Sydney hates to talk (or even think) about sex. She's also fighting a secret battle against depression, and she's sure she'll never have a boyfriend. When her classmate Paul starts texting and sending her nature photos, she is caught off guard by his interest. Always uncomfortable with any talk about sex, Sydney is shocked when her extroverted sister, Abby, announces that she is going to put on The Vagina Monologues at school. Despite her discomfort, Sydney starts to reexamine her relationship with her body, and with Paul. But her depression worsens, and with the help of her friends, her family, a therapist and some medication, she grapples with what she calls the most dangerous thing about sex: female desire.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Family, mental health, and sexual awakening all combine for an honest and enjoyable read. Sydney is struggling with depression and social anxiety. Other people are unpredictable and messy, especially when sex is involved, and she'd rather just hide in her closet and work toward a future where she can live alone and go biking whenever she wants. Biking helps lift the fog she fights every day. In the present, however, she must contend with a boy who makes her feel new things, her sister's mortifying production of The Vagina Monologues, and her Zeyda's declining health. Luckily for Syd, she has lots of support and professional help. Lieberman has crafted an engaging novel that takes mental illness seriously while presenting it as manageable, especially with professional help. The time Sydney spends with her supportive Jewish family and her dawning understanding of her parents and sister as individuals will make this complex character relatable to many teens. The protagonist's revelations about sex, her body, and feminism are developmentally appropriate, and many struggling teens will appreciate that Sydney continues to process these issues. Lieberman's story of a girl living with depression as she moves into womanhood will be a hit with fans of Sarah Dessen and Christine Heppermann. VERDICT Recommended for most school and public libraries.-Elizabeth Saxton, Tiffin, OH © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An eleventh-grade girl wants to start a relationship but is stymied by depression and anxiety.Syd knows her depression isn't really out of control, like some people's. She can usually manage the crushing fog that weighs her down: tricking herself into getting out of bed by playing the phone game; biking around Vancouver, British Columbia, until she's exhausted; investing online with her cantankerous grandfather; eating just enough to get by. It works well enough until her lab partner, Paul, starts texting and flirting. Syd would respond in kind if she could, but she's afraid to make eye contact or have conversations with new peoplehow could she possibly start a relationship? Fading into the background would be ideal, but her gregarious family has other plans. Her mother, revitalizing the family Passover celebration, ropes Syd into embarrassing Jewish singalongs. Worse, Syd's vivacious sister wants to perform The Vagina Monologues for the school drama festival, and she's written her own monologueone that uses "the c-word"! The oozing darkness that dominates Syd's thoughts is authentically represented in her present-tense narration and appropriately addressed with professional mental health treatment. Frustratingly, however, Syd's nervousness about romantic and sexual intimacy is pathologized as a curable symptom of her mental illness. An approachable, earnest, feel-good romance between a white Jewish girl and a Chinese-Canadian immigrant boy provides the flavor for a tale of recovery and empowerment. (Fiction. 13-15) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Every morning, Sydney wakes up in a fog of depression. She uses routines to stave it off and get moving, but it still follows her to school like a gloomy puppy. She also suffers from social anxiety, able to interact only with a tiny handful of friends, one of whom, Paul, has developed a romantic interest in her. She wants to return it, but she keeps getting in her own way, worried about the loss of control that goes along with a relationship and sexual desire the most dangerous thing. Added to that is her family of extroverts who have difficulty understanding what she is going through, especially since she doesn't tell them anything. Against her will, she finds herself caught in her sister's drama of staging her own version of The Vagina Monologues, which at once annoys and intrigues her. Told in Sydney's first-person narrative, this is a quiet, gentle novel that conveys not just Sydney's pain, but also her courageous attempts to dispel the fog, even when it seems to be winning.--Scanlon, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist
