Good Girls -- Laura Ruby

Due to skipping third grade, Audrey is the youngest girl in her senior class.  She gets good grades, has good friends and is known for always thinking things through -- except when it comes to Luke DeSalvio.

When she's around him, her brain just doesn't seem to work right.  For months now, every time they meet at a party, they end up on the lawn, in a bedroom, in his mother's van.  They never really talk about it.  Audrey's friends counsel her not to get too attached, to 'act cool', to remember that he's probably hooking up with other girls as well.

On the night that Audrey finally decides to end it, someone photographs them in a compromising position.  Within twenty-four hours, the picture is everywhere -- every student has seen it, most teachers, even Audrey's parents. 

When she walks through the halls, Luke won't even make eye contact, people stop talking and just stare, she gets propositioned by guys who'd never even talked to her.

Good Girls is a cross between Forever and Sandpiper with some of the angsty goodness of Sarah Dessen.  It's a friendship story and a family story and a relationship story and a coming-of-age story and a story about sex and its possible consequences -- social and physical and emotional. 

Even though it deals with consequences, Good Girls isn't a frying-pan-cautionary-tale a la Beatrice Sparks -- it's just a story about stuff that happens to a whole lot of teens.  (Not so much the photo thing, but if memory serves, the fallout from just-plain-gossip can amount to very similar situations.)

While there are some very sexually explicit scenes, I never felt that Laura Ruby added them to be controversial or titillating.  They felt organic -- not forced -- and were emotionally true and realistic.  Interestingly enough, there was almost no swearing.  Good one for fans of the above-mentioned titles, but obviously be careful recommending it due to the content.

Comments

[Chrissy]

Ok, cool. But this is the second book to come out about 'reputation' and the negative effects sex can have just socially - directed at GIRLS (and that's whole other rant). It's feeling like a trend: we can't scare teens anymore with describing pregnancy or STDs so lets tell them it will ruin them socially. And while Sandpiper was fantastic, and this one sounds just as good, I'm still bothered/worried by the same message (as the Sparks books) being conveyed in a different wrapping.

[port]

anyone have the quote from the last page of the book about her speech???