Helpful Score: 1
Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
If there was ever a book that captures the extreme discomfort of coming into your own self, then EASY is that book. Fourteen-year-old Jessica lives a life in turmoil. Whether all of the turmoil is real or imagined doesn't matter. What's important is that for this girl who once knew exactly who she was and what place she held in the world, she no longer knows anything at all.
It was simple once. There was her mom, and dad, and older sister, Anne. There was school and her best friend, Elisabeth. Most of all there was photography, and Ruth, the art teacher she's had since seventh grade. But now her parents are divorced; her mom is unable to cope, and her dad has a new girlfriend, Dana, who caused her parent's split. Anne is busy alternately hating their father and being the parent to their mother. Ruth is equally busy hounding Jessica for her self-portrait that's to be entered in the national high school art contest.
But Jessica doesn't find the same comfort behind the camera that she'd once took for granted. In fact, Jessica doesn't take comfort in much of anything, except the new-found confidence she has when she's around members of the opposite sex. She finds herself lying in bed at night, reconstructing scenes with Jason, her crush. Somehow, though, it's not enough, this wanting from afar. Her body has changed, almost beyond recognition, and the catcalls and whistles from guys on the street give Jessica a feeling she hasn't had before--that of being admired, wanted, needed.
When she meets Ted, a guy in his twenties who stops for her on the highway, her initial wariness quickly turns to feelings of power. This guy desires her. He needs her. She, the girl who hasn't felt loved or wanted for such a long time, finally has the type of power that makes her feel alive.
This type of power doesn't last, and it's only a matter of time before Jessica figures this out. While her father is planning to marry his once-mistress, and her sister gets an actual boyfriend, and her mother revels in her misery, it will take some drastic circumstances before Jessica realizes just what, exactly, she's become. When she finally figures out which photograph to use for her self-portrait, it's not pretty. But neither, she realizes, is real life.
This is a book that, like its title suggests, is terribly easy to relate to. Even in this day and age, it is extremely simple for females to equate desire and attraction with self-worth and love. Whether it's the way of our society or the fault of the media, young girls especially learn from an early age that being wanted by males makes you a better female. EASY shows, without ever being preachy or self-effacing, the fallacy in this way of thinking. This is a definite winner that I highly recommend to anyone and everyone. Kudos to Ms. Hoffmann for such an emotional, heartfelt story.
If there was ever a book that captures the extreme discomfort of coming into your own self, then EASY is that book. Fourteen-year-old Jessica lives a life in turmoil. Whether all of the turmoil is real or imagined doesn't matter. What's important is that for this girl who once knew exactly who she was and what place she held in the world, she no longer knows anything at all.
It was simple once. There was her mom, and dad, and older sister, Anne. There was school and her best friend, Elisabeth. Most of all there was photography, and Ruth, the art teacher she's had since seventh grade. But now her parents are divorced; her mom is unable to cope, and her dad has a new girlfriend, Dana, who caused her parent's split. Anne is busy alternately hating their father and being the parent to their mother. Ruth is equally busy hounding Jessica for her self-portrait that's to be entered in the national high school art contest.
But Jessica doesn't find the same comfort behind the camera that she'd once took for granted. In fact, Jessica doesn't take comfort in much of anything, except the new-found confidence she has when she's around members of the opposite sex. She finds herself lying in bed at night, reconstructing scenes with Jason, her crush. Somehow, though, it's not enough, this wanting from afar. Her body has changed, almost beyond recognition, and the catcalls and whistles from guys on the street give Jessica a feeling she hasn't had before--that of being admired, wanted, needed.
When she meets Ted, a guy in his twenties who stops for her on the highway, her initial wariness quickly turns to feelings of power. This guy desires her. He needs her. She, the girl who hasn't felt loved or wanted for such a long time, finally has the type of power that makes her feel alive.
This type of power doesn't last, and it's only a matter of time before Jessica figures this out. While her father is planning to marry his once-mistress, and her sister gets an actual boyfriend, and her mother revels in her misery, it will take some drastic circumstances before Jessica realizes just what, exactly, she's become. When she finally figures out which photograph to use for her self-portrait, it's not pretty. But neither, she realizes, is real life.
This is a book that, like its title suggests, is terribly easy to relate to. Even in this day and age, it is extremely simple for females to equate desire and attraction with self-worth and love. Whether it's the way of our society or the fault of the media, young girls especially learn from an early age that being wanted by males makes you a better female. EASY shows, without ever being preachy or self-effacing, the fallacy in this way of thinking. This is a definite winner that I highly recommend to anyone and everyone. Kudos to Ms. Hoffmann for such an emotional, heartfelt story.
