Author: Madeleine George
What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Emily is vice-president of student council, blonde and beautiful, in love with her boyfriend, and working as an intern for NorthStar. Jesse puts up flyers to "liberate all weirdos," cuts her hair short with a Swiss army knife, is openly queer, and is working to keep NorthStar corporation out of her school. Jesse and Emily seem to have nothing in common, yet they meet secretly to kiss passionately in the library restroom every Tuesday afternoon.
What I think (in 250 words or fewer): At first, I felt very sorry for Jesse and disliked Emily intensely. Jesse is bullied and Jesse's only friend left school to be home-schooled. Jesse is a social misfit kind of drifting through life and has a hopeless crush on Emily, who is seemingly the stereotypical preppy perfect high school girl. Emily likes to toot her own horn and explain over and over how good her intentions are and how she so much wants to help people. Very irritating.
After a while, though, I started to see the cracks in Emily's facade. She constantly justifies why she's staying with her perfect boyfriend and how wonderful it is for NorthStar (an obvious parallel to Wal-mart) to sponsor the school and how lucky she is and the lady doth protest too much, methinks.
When Jesse is busted for skipping a pep rally (I can definitely relate--I hate those things!), she's assigned detention, and there Jesse meets Esther, who participates in a peace vigil in their small town weekly. Esther finds out that NorthStar is planning to open a store near their town, so she enlists Jesse to help organize a protest, putting Jesse and Emily at odds with each other.
In the end, Emily is still miserably insisting everything's just perfect, but Jesse has gained some needed self-esteem. Jesse's home-schooled queer friend Wyatt, Wyatt's super-religious father Howard, Jesse's peacenik parents, and eccentric peace-vigil participants are memorable secondary characters. The ending was unsatisfying--I want to know what ends up happening with NorthStar.
This book is on the 2013 Rainbow Book List.
My final takeaway: The book was okay, but like so many other books I've read, I want to know more. For example, what happens to Wyatt and his jerk of a father? Does Jesse continue doing the peace vigils with Esther and all of the other town residents? Does NorthStar take over? Does Emily ever actually live authentically? I'm not worried about Jesse so much as Emily. I'm afraid that Emily will be miserable forever but insist she's happy, and Jesse will start a new life for herself and shine.
My favorite quotes:
- "Pep rallies are fascist demonstrations of loyalty and I am not loyal to my school. I hate my school. I'm the opposite of loyal to it. If I wouldn't end up in jail, I'd blow it up" (hardback edition, pg. 24).
- "'It's fine that you guys are heterosexual, your lifestyle choice is none of my business, but I don't see why you have to rub it in my face all the time. This house is totally gender-oppressive and I'm sick of it. I'm here, I'm queer--'
'We're used to it'" (pg. 26).
- "The point is just to be. You don't have to do anything besides be right here" (pg. 105).
- "Sometimes that boy is so sweet, I swear, it makes my heart ache. It makes my stomach feel queasy. It makes me feel a little like I'm coming down with something" (pg. 125).
Other reviews: Book Smugglers and Waking Brain Cells.
This book is available in the Greensboro Public Library.
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