Girl

I first read this book 10 years ago, when I was 15 years old. I just finished it again for the 21st time. Yes that is right, I have read Girl, by Blake Nelson 2 times a year for 10 years. When I started reading this book I instantly felt like someone finally understood me. I was young, dating an older musician and going to night clubs instead of school dances. Yet at the same time there was a part of me that wanted to be like everyone else, studying, joining school clubs, getting ready for college.Andrea Marr completely encapsulates the most common teenage fears and desires. The desire to find love, to be different yet accepted. To find freedom from both your parents and school. The desire to figure out WHO you are, by constantly changing. When you read Girl you will find that it is not like reading a book, it is like you are reading 3 years worth of a teenagers diary. Boyfriends, break ups, friendships fading and changing. Surprizingly honest and heartfelt. By the end you will feel like Andrea Marr is your best friend. I am amazed at how well Blake Nelson takes on the voice of a 16 year old teenage girl. I only wish he had written a sequel, because I would love to know what Andrea is up to now.

This book automatically gets five stars just because it was written so well in the voice of a teenage girl by a grown man. Not a moment rings false as you delve into the life of Andrea Marr, a high school girl coming of age in the early nineties "grunge" of Portland. She faces the familiar pratfalls of life, including all that is important to a teenager...boys, friends, school, clothes, music and sex. Everything is fresh and real; just reading it can take you back to the day when you yourself were sixteen and every single moment contained so much importance and angst. Blake Nelson nails his portrayal of a teenage girl dead on. I still find it hard to believe, like other reviewers here, that this story was written by a man. 'Girl' reads like a few years of a personal diary, one that the author of such diary never really meant for anyone but herself to see. Andrea grows realistically, not from a good girl gone bad overnight, but as a true person finding herself and her identity. If this means making new friends who shave their heads, shop at thrift stores and start their own bands, then so be it. As the books states, it's only a brief glimpse into her life. Who knows what happened after high school?I was lucky enough to actually get to read this while I was still in high school myself. While it is not difficult to get into or terribly deep, it rings so true to real life that it is impossible to put down. Just reading it again can transport you back to your youth. A highly recommended book.

I happened upon GIRL about four or five years ago (at a buck a book, no less) and have reread it (or just parts of it) about a thousand times. This book reads like I (used to; hey, I'm not 16 anymore...)talk; run-on sentences replace unending spoken lamen- tations on guys, sex, shopping, guys, sex....you get the point. GIRL was a fabulous, if quick, read. How a man wrote this, I will never understand! The author paints a vivid truth not to the typical "teen-angst," but to how a teenage girl speaks, acts, and thinks (which is where the "typical teen-angst" usually developes, although most authors fail to realize that it is actually a response to emotional overhaul, not a common act of shallow rebellion, as it is often portrayed), which, especially from a guy, is pretty rare. Everything about the book I could relate to, mostly because I had done it or had known someone who had; even Andrea's revelations about the blatant differences about making love and being (because you're a woman) "f---ed" (which apparently made other readers realize that a MAN wrote the book)were right on. She's female and she realizes that, at some times, it can be a little disheartening in this modern-day, feminist era. Because she had these revelations does not make her weak, it was just something she REALIZED, as every woman on the planet might, and the fact that the author could portray this honestly helped make the character, and, ultimately, the book, that much more believable. Fun Fact: My friend who never "read for fun," picked up the book one night and could not put it down! She read about 50 pages right there in my room, before she went home and spent the rest of the night reading it! She could not believe how great the book was (and she really couldn't believe that a man had wrote it!)!

Early into my teenage years, I grew disenchanted with the "young adult" fiction that was on the market. I just could not relate to those twins of Sweet Valley, nor to their counterparts in other teen novels. NO ONE lives their lives the way those characters did! I enjoyed reading, and it was a big disappointment not to be able to identify with any fictional characters of my age group. (I often wonder if this is why so few teens like to read). Two years ago, long after I moved into my 20s, I found "Girl", and was completely blown away. I didn't think it was possible that Andrea could be purely the creation of Blake Nelson's mind. She speaks like a real 16 year old, experiences things that happen to real 16 year olds, and has friends who are like the ones real 16 year olds have (I want to meet Cybil! I wish I had known her when I was in high school). I'm sure that many parents and teachers would like to believe that their little ones do not say or do the things that Andrea does in "Girl" (what first sparked my curiosity about this book was reading a review in a magazine in which the critic said this would be a good young adult novel if not for the graphic language), but you need only spend half an hour in a high school cafeteria to understand that there is nothing in this novel that any teenager is not already aware of. Many readers have expressed amazement that Blake Nelson, a man, could capture so perfectly the essence of a young woman. I admire him for this too, but am even more impressed to find an adult writer who still remembers what it's like to be a teenager, and can make others remember as well.

... WARNING: causes self-retrospection; nostaglia; and "he is talking about ME" thoughts. If you like a good read, one that causes you to look back at your own life and relate to the character (were you a teenager of the nineties?), you cannot go wrong here... Blake Nelson writes the teenage girl perspective accurately and sincerely, with honesty and integrity... presenting the often less than pretty and true to form comings and goings of any teenage girl... no "sweet sixteen" here!