Sweethearts by Sara Zarr is a captivating story of love and loss. With that first description you would probably think, "God, another stupid chick-lit", but honestly, it's not really all that chick-lit-y. It's about Jenna Vaughn, 17-year-old high school student, perfect body, perfect friends, perfect boyfriend, seemingly perfect home life. But what the rest of the world doesn't know about Jenna is she used to be the "fat kid" the one who didn't talk to anybody, who got teased. Her only friend was Cameron Quick, child abused kid that was so totally weird, everybody would be scared (I think a good parallel would be a nerdier version of Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club with a little bit less swagger). On Jenna's ninth birthday Cameron takes her over to his house to show her the birthday present he made, only to be abused by his father in front of Jenna, they escape, but terrified only to be cornered again by Cameron's father. Cameron disappears shortly after this incident, everybody tells her he's dead, and Jenna reforms herself. Now I didn't mention this before, but Jenna was never Jenna, she used to be Jennifer Harris, that was the fat kid, Fattifer to use her nickname. Now Jenna's mom's remarried and she has a loving step dad, an entire new life. But on Jenna's eighteenth birthday she finds a note in her mailbox from Cameron and her life gets turned upside down. The rest of the book tells of Jenna's realizations during her time with Cameron.
This is a really thought-provoking book that I loved but also creeped me out a little bit. I was weirded out by the fact that Jenna has completely compartmentalized her life, there's Jenna Vaughn and there's Jennifer Harris, who is almost compliantly suppressed. The term 'compartmentalization' creeps me out in this scenario for two reasons, A. (this applies to all uses of the word compartment with any additions to the root word), now, I'm not a slob but I'm not a neat-freak, so I don't agree with compartments and cabinets and frankly, the word gives me a microscopic case of the heeby-jeebies, B. The whole part of the book that says that someone can completely force themselves to change and suppress their previous selves within, gives me a MACROSCOPIC case of the heeby-jeebies. Of course the parts I loved were awesome, like the fact that the 'Ninth Birthday Case of 1998' is revealed slowly in little pieces until everything falls into place, ecelente. Another awesome thing, the perfect placement and development of supporting characters adds just the right amount of crazy. This book is a must read for anyone, it tells of human nature and puppy love (a perfect combination in my opinion).
P.S. I seem to be saying that everything is awesome, but don't worry, I picked up some books that people said were complete bombs. Also, if anyone has suggestions of books that sucked please tell me, I need to work on my constructive criticism.
P.P.S. WARNING, if you get easily annoyed by fictional characters that are total shitake (substitution for the S-word I picked up today), you have been warned, proceed with caution.
Taryn.
