Crush

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I was looking for a good glbt teen type novel, and I found this one at a used book store in my area. I finally got a chance to read it, and I had the hardest time putting it down. What Jinx felt, I felt too. Like I was here and I was the one being torn down my Lexie and being condmned by the Nicky. It felt real like what Jinx was going through was happening to me too, it was kind of scary. Whenever Lexie hurt Jinx or took advantage of her or played with her emotions like she did, I wanted to go up to Lexie and smack her and yell at her and tell her what a terrible, inhumane person she was. Lexie, on some level, reminds me of a girl I know (accept this girl is bi and open about it). Just the way she used Jinx and played with her like that remdinds me of this girl. I just wonder how someone like Lexie could have the audacity to be cruel to someone who loves her so much??? I guess this is why they book is so good, it's like a slice of real life. I loved this book immensely.

(minor semi-spoilers ahead)Honest without being bitter, sexual without being pornographic, and like a shot of emotion direct to the heart, "Crush" was a very well-written book that was easy to relate to. I'm a gay teenager, and I'm in a small town that reacts to lesbians the same way the people in the boarding school did. When I read Jinx's feelings towards Lexie, I just sat there thinking "My god, that's me with [insert girl's name here]" (even though I doubt [insert girl's name here] would act as cruel and thoughtless as Lexie did). Any book that can suck me in with its drama rather than make me feel jaded and cause me to feel the same emotions as the leading character is an instant classic on my list. I had to put down the book several times to tell myself that Lexie was fiction and not actually betraying Jinx (and all her readers). But then I remembered the Lexies in my life, and in the lives of millions of other lesbian teenagers. I wish that I could send a copy of this book to all of those "other lesbian teenagers", with a little note inside saying "You are not alone".

No one minded Lexie sleeping around with her cousin and other men, but because they believed Jinx was a lesbian, the school staff went against her. This school sounds eerily like one I once went to. I couldn't believe the way the staff treated Jinx, like she was a leper. This book is very well-written and sad. There is no happily-ever-after, which makes the book realistic. The private school students in this book are emotionally confused, and the attitudes surrounding them about what is normal makes the reader see why there are people in such pain.I recommend this book highly. If you are disturbed by sexual situations between members of the same or opposite sex, then don't read it. Sex is not presented pornographically, and the portrayal about teens and crushes is very realistic.

It was absorbing from cover to cover. We are made to feel not only Jinx's anguish and confusion as she ventures through the minefields of her emotions, but sympathy for all the characters that we encounter. Even Lexie, in her state of hysterical denial -- I could not help feeling sorrow for her. The ending was only as it could be. Happy-ever-after would be a sellout, a betrayal. But consider the time -- Jinx is going to New York four years prior to the Stonewall riots. She will be there for the revolution. No matter what adventures await her, she will be a witness to the dawn of a brave new world. No, not a witness -- there is no doubt in my mind that she will be among those leading the charge.

I absolutely adored this book. It started out a bit slow and innocent, but once the story got going, all I wanted to do was read, read, read. The charachters were likable, even Lexie who was a very unreliable, confused charachter. The emotional content was superb. Everything Jinx felt I felt as well. Many of the situations were very familliar and I liked the alternative veiw the girls in the book had on the meaning of the word "crush." It was beautifully written, beautifully created and my heart ached greatly as I finished the story. Being a writer myself, and as silly as it may sound, these charachters hold something very deep for me