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Reviews for Story of a Girl

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  • Reviewed by Monaliz @ Mind Reading?3

    Monaliz @ Mind Reading? My rating: 3.5/5 stars

    Deanna was 13 when her father caught her having sex in a car, with her big brother's best friend. After that, everyone in her life are stuck in that moment. Even when she's already 16 years old. Her father has never really talk to her after that, her mother avoids any conversation. Her big brother knocked up his girlfriend - even though they're kids themselves - and Deanna has a best friend, Jason. And she's interested in Jason, there's just one problem - he's dating her other best friend, Lee.

    As I mentioned earlier, I had some mixed emotions about this book. Unfortunately they were emotions like sadness and rage. Rage, because a 17 year old guy basically had sex with a child, and that child is called ****? Something I will never get.
    Especially when the person who hates you the most for that, is your own father. But it's pretty obvious that her father has some issues himself, issues that has nothing to do with the main character.

    I was also shocked, and mad, to see the hillbilly- attitude. Meaning "don't do that, or you'll get in trouble.." (by a guy who knocked up his girlfriend!!) and "be a good girl". Especially the good girl part is repeated over and over again.
    Meaning, don't have sex with anyone ever again, or you're a huge **** and you've disappointed us all, AGAIN. What the hell, seriously?? Okay, now I'm getting angry again!

    Deanna is sort of white trash, but I wouldn't hate her for that. Because she's actually, in the end, trying to change her life. In the beginning of the book she, and everyone else, are dwelling in the past. It was sad. And annoying.
    At one point, I was actually screaming out loud because I was so frustrated. I think it was this part:

    ".. And me because, well, no one wants the school **** for a daughter. Technically, I'm not a ****, because there was only ever Tommy, but it's hard to defend myself on a technicality when things happened the way they did."


    I made notes to that: "GET OVER IT!! IT WAS THREE YEARS AGO!!11 AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!"
    You can translate that into something like: "If you're not proud of yourself, everyone will always think of you as the school ****. So stop dwelling in the past and be proud of what you've become, even if you can't be proud of what you were."

    Yeah, I know, hard for a 16 year old, but there still are things you can do.
    Like we see at the end of the book. The sentences I quoted are from the beginning of the book, I basically screamed first 60 pages, but after that it got more interesting and less condescending, so I could actually enjoy the story :)

    Of course I'd like to know if Jason and Deanna ever had future together? Unfortunately, that I will never know. *sigh*

    Love,
    Monaliz @ Mind Reading? by Monaliz @ Mind Reading?

  • Reviewed by Amber Gibson for TeensReadToo.com5

    TeensReadToo Have you ever done something that you wish you could take back? Something that changed your life forever?

    We've all been there. We've all done something that we regret. Just like all of us, Deanna was once caught doing something that she wasn't proud of. Unfortunately for her, it almost ruined her teen years. Just one dumb relationship, sprinkled with naivetÃf© and trust, and suddenly Deanna finds herself with the vulgar label of the school slut. It wasn't what she'd asked for; she'd only ever been with one guy. But the stories just won't stop. Like a horrible rerun of a hated sitcom, it seems like everywhere she turns, Deanna is confronted with what she did one night in a boy's car--and the fact that her father caught her doing it.

    Deanna's story is touching, and the worst example of how one event can seem to define a person's life. But like the fighter she is, Deanna tries to move on and just live her life as normally as possible, with her two best friends and her family. But her family life isn't exactly picturesque. Her older brother, his wife Stacy, and their baby daughter are living in the basement. Her father is always arguing with Stacy, and Deanna thinks that he hates Stacy almost as much as he hates her since that fateful night when Deanna's life fell apart. Her mother loves her and tries so hard to give Deanna the care that she needs, but somehow it doesn't quite make up for the fact that their family is just barely scraping by. On top of all that, Deanna doesn't know if she'll ever make it out of Pacifica, a little dump of a town in the otherwise glamorous state of California.

    After sophomore year is over, Deanna is stuck at home all summer. To get out of the house and keep her busy, she gets her first job at a little local pizza parlor. There, she discovers that the same boy who came so close ruining her life three years earlier is now her co-worker. While she struggles to understand her feelings towards him, she is also struggling at home to live with the strange family arrangement and someday find a way out.

    Over the course of the summer, Deanna learns a lot about herself, her friends, and her family. By the time she returns to high school as a junior, she has a much better understanding of who she is, and that nobody else can define her. Sara Zarr did a wonderful job of creating Deanna, such a vulnerable character whose thoughts and actions are so believable. Never again will I judge somebody from a story I once heard about them, after seeing Deanna's account of just how much that can hurt. by TeensReadToo

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