This is a short, but intense book. It follows a high school girl who goes to boarding school after a tragic accident in her hometown. It portrays the vulnerability of a young woman who is at many crossroads of her life. Very impressive.
This was a short novel - 140 pages - that really packs a punch. The writing and use of language is brilliant. There are two tragic stories in one with Jo, the main character, the center of each.
When Jo is 15 she and two friends make a typical teenage decision that seems fun, stealing a golf cart when drunk and going on a joy ride, but that has a tragic ending leaving one of them dead. After Jo's best friend dies, and she was the one driving the golf cart, she is ostracized from the town and goes to an expensive boarding school. There she has an unwanted sexual relationship with a male teacher. Who has had other unwanted sexual relationships with other students (here is the title - his favorites being the chosen students). When she tries to tell an older adult, we see the societal biases of the 1970s when this story took place: who will believe you? you must have asked for it. look at how you are dressed. he is prominent, you are nobody.
The two stories weave back and forth in time and sometimes flash forward to Jo the narrator as an adult. We don't really see Jo's life as an adult or how she survived these traumas. We do see that she graduated from the boarding school and we see that sometime later after another student in later years questioned the teacher that there was an investigation and Jo tells her side of the story. These are just a few pages.
Interwoven with these two stories we see a girl struggling to fit in, lonely, missing her best friend who she killed as the result of teenage stupidity. Tough coming of age story and sad but so beautifully written.
When Jo is 15 she and two friends make a typical teenage decision that seems fun, stealing a golf cart when drunk and going on a joy ride, but that has a tragic ending leaving one of them dead. After Jo's best friend dies, and she was the one driving the golf cart, she is ostracized from the town and goes to an expensive boarding school. There she has an unwanted sexual relationship with a male teacher. Who has had other unwanted sexual relationships with other students (here is the title - his favorites being the chosen students). When she tries to tell an older adult, we see the societal biases of the 1970s when this story took place: who will believe you? you must have asked for it. look at how you are dressed. he is prominent, you are nobody.
The two stories weave back and forth in time and sometimes flash forward to Jo the narrator as an adult. We don't really see Jo's life as an adult or how she survived these traumas. We do see that she graduated from the boarding school and we see that sometime later after another student in later years questioned the teacher that there was an investigation and Jo tells her side of the story. These are just a few pages.
Interwoven with these two stories we see a girl struggling to fit in, lonely, missing her best friend who she killed as the result of teenage stupidity. Tough coming of age story and sad but so beautifully written.
