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Lost It
Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Readers will be immediately drawn to this hilarious and heartfelt first
novel about a girl who falls in love -- and has her first sexual experience
-- and tries to let go of her fears. Tess Whistle lives in Idaho with
paranoid parents, who "became born again" after a kitchen fire.
The book begins with an account of how she loses her virginity, then
flashes back to the start of junior year, when she expected to stay
a virgin until she is "at least engaged." Tess has plenty of phobias,
mostly of the natural world where she could be "torn to pieces by a
pack of recently relocated gray wolves." Just before her whole life
crumbles, Benjamin Easter transfers to her school. Tess falls intensely
in love without realizing "that you can't depend on another person to
provide your own balance."
And there's no doubt that Tess's life is out of balance: Her best friend
is building a bomb, claiming she wants to blow up a poodle, her parents
run off to join a survival camp, and Tess tells Ben she is diabetic
as way of explaining her "juvenile" apple juice box, then maintains
the lie.
Readers may be so busy laughing out loud at the eccentric characters
and outrageous plotting that they may not realize how much they have
grown to empathize with desperate Tess until her relationship is in
crisis. Readers will fall in love with this offbeat story -- and its
rich lesson about living a life without guarantees. Ages 14-up. (Jan.)
School Library Journal
Gr 9 & Up - Idaho teen Tess Whistle is having one weird junior year
-- she, her family, and her friends are all "losing it." Her parents,
born again following a serious grease fire in the kitchen, take off
unexpectedly to a survival camp in the Utah desert, leaving Tess with
her grandmother. Tess's best friend, Zena, reacts to her parents' marital
troubles by making elaborate plans to blow up a poodle. And Tess herself,
who used to be 100 percent certain that she'd wait until she was married
before she had sex and is deathly afraid of the wilderness, loses her
virginity out of doors with her boyfriend.
This book is a great read, hilarious and poignant at the same time.
Teens will laugh out loud at Tess and her frank, humorous observations
about the outrageous situations in which she finds herself, but they
will also empathize with her feelings of not being in control of her
life. They will also be heartened by the conclusion of the novel, for
even though Tess is unsure of what will happen next, she has finally
come to terms with the fact that life offers no guarantees, saying,
"For the first time in a long time, I feel hopeful. And ready for what
comes next."
-- Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ |
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