Screwed

Gr 9 Up—The night Grace Warren, a shy, unpopular, straight-A 17-year-old, decides to lose her virginity to Nick, the most popular guy in school, she can't know that her life is about to change. Soon enough she discovers that she's pregnant, and Nick wants nothing to do with her. When she admits to her ultra-religious parents what's happened, they kick her out of the house. Luckily, her kind, elderly neighbor, Helen, takes her in. Yes, Grace must make some hard decisions and has to deal with the scorn of her family and friends, but, in fairy-godmother fashion, Helen provides for her, never judges her, and is always ready to pave the way for her. Even though Nick rejects her, Grace has a prince charming in the person of Charlie, who is content to wait patiently for her to figure her life out. The writing is confusing at times; the narrative voice can change abruptly between paragraphs, interrupting the flow of the plot, what little there is of it. The tone of book is sanctimonious and off-putting, and the characters are dull, uninteresting, and one-dimensional. Though this novel tackles a hot-button issue, it falls short of delivering a believable tale about the very real challenges that face a majority of teen mothers.—Elizabeth Jakubowski, formerly at Watervliet Public Library, NY