bookshelves of doom: Dramarama -- E. Lockhart

01 March 2007

Dramarama -- E. Lockhart

What is it about guys named Lyle that is always so crushworthy?

Sayde and Demi (known at home as Sarah Paulson and Douglas B. Howard, Junior) are about to embark on an adventure of fabulosity:

We got our Wildewood acceptance letters on the same day.

I was in. He was in.

We were--we were--what we had hoped we were.

Good enough. Great.

Talented.

And--thank you, thank you, oh, Liza Minnelli and whatever gods and goddesses watch over theater-mad, pizzazzy teenagers--we were leaving Ohio.

Sayde and Demi are best friends. And, really, only friends. And they're about to enter The World They Are Destined For. Glitter and sequins and tap shoes and solos and Shakespeare and rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal.

From the very beginning, it is apparent that Demi is In His Element. Wildewood is a place where he can Be Who He Is -- where he doesn't put on his invisible-straight-boy mask, where he can be his Real, Razzle-Dazzle self. Where he is not just tolerated, but embraced, for who he is.

Sayde's Wildewood experience is a bit different.

I loved Dramarama. I might have even loved it more than The Boyfriend List, if such a thing is possible. (I'll have to re-read The Boyfriend List to be sure. And then read Dramarama again. Life is hard.)

Yes, it's a book that theater-mad teens will love. But not just them -- because it is, at its heart, it is about the evolution of a friendship and about figuring out Who You Are. Like any good coming-of-age story, it made me tear up at the end. The characters are many and varied, and I really didn't know how things were going to turn out until the Epilogue. Good one, E. Lockhart.

Fans of realistic teen fiction, keep your eyes peeled for this one. It's due out at the beginning of May.

01 March 2007 in Books - YA | Permalink