Firsts

October 12, 2015
Mercedes Ayres is in the business of taking boys’ virginity, “helping” them get through their first times having sex so that their girlfriends can enjoy the benefits. She keeps these encounters secret from everyone in her life, maintaining the appearance of a quiet chemistry whiz at school. What started off as something supposedly empowering quickly devolves into a destructive habit Mercedes can’t seem to break. As the list of boys Mercedes has slept with tops 10 and keeps going, her certainty in the value of what she’s doing is shaken, and word gets out at school that Mercedes is easy—something that takes quite a bit longer to happen than seems likely. Debut author Flynn raises worthwhile questions about teenage sexuality and perceived promiscuity, but while Mercedes’s many sexual encounters aren’t described in gratuitous detail, the story veers into sensationalism halfway in and never quite recovers. The novel eventually gets around to exploring the events that have shaped Mercedes’s attitude toward sex, but more often it seems to be reveling in the drama of it all. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

October 15, 2015
A determined teen uses sex to regain control over her life. Mercedes is 17, hellbent on attending MIT, and secretly sleeping with boys to coach them on how to give their girlfriends the great first sexual experience they deserve. She adheres to a strict code, working with virgins only, insisting on absolute secrecy, and maintaining a pure image by attending the weekly prayer meetings led by her best friend, Angela. By doing this, Mercedes thinks she can control the delicacy of the service she's offering as smoothly as she handles complex chemistry experiments. But she's already violated her self-imposed boundary of working with just five deserving boys, then 10, then more. Eventually, Mercedes realizes that she's using these encounters--and a secret, sex-only relationship with her lab partner, Zach--to exercise control over aspects of her life that make her feel unsafe. These include her relationship with her irresponsible, image-obsessed mother and the memories of her sexual assault years ago. Meanwhile, her expectation of privacy is crumbling, Zach wants to be her boyfriend, and she's attracted to alluring new student Faye. When Mercedes' secrets are exposed, she must confront the truths of her painful past and her complicated present. The novel exposes some of the double standards inherent in our purity-obsessed culture but stops short of interrogating the value of the concept of virginity, giving the story an uneasy ambiguity. A promising if overlong and ambivalent debut. (Fiction. 14-18)

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November 1, 2015

Gr 10 Up-Mercedes Ayres is a busy 17-year-old: she's already had sex with 15 people and counting. After losing her virginity at age 13, Mercedes thinks she can bury that bad experience by sleeping with virgins at her school to "help" them prepare for their first time with their girlfriends. When a video of her exploits is posted on the Internet, the predictable reaction follows: brandished a slut and a whore, Mercedes is ostracized at school. It takes willpower and help from a new friend for the teen to realize that, in her desire to assist her classmates, she has lost control and become out of touch with reality. This novel does not succeed on several levels: there are too many archetypal characters (the sassy best friend, the checked-out mother, the friend with benefits) and plot flaws. How is it that Mercedes is shocked when her secret gets out? Also, once the video is released, there is no intervention by any parents, teachers, or school officials, which does not seem realistic. In the end, Mercedes has some revelations about the importance of being true to herself, but it's hard to get past the novel's cliched trappings. Frank sexual depictions make this title appropriate for mature teens. VERDICT Not recommended.-Melissa Kazan, Horace Mann School, NY

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2015
Grades 10-1 Mercedes Ayres is the best-kept secret in her high school: she'll sleep with anyone, as long as he's a virgin. Indeed, she believes she's doing a public service by helping nervous Romeos plan a special night for their girlfriends and ensuring that the girls don't have the horrible first-time experience that she did. Mercedes' system seems foolproof, and to most people, including her conservative best friend, Angela, she's a quiet, good girl. Then things get messy: sexy, volatile Faye inserts herself into Mercedes' life, and hookup-buddy Zach begins to want more than sex. Worse, Angela's boyfriend, Charlie, has found out about Mercedes' extracurricular activities and is demanding a turn. It's not a perfect debutCharlie quickly evolves from a believable creep into a mustache-twirling villainbut her difficult relationship with her mother and her conflicted friendships with Angela, Faye, and Zach ring true. Mercedes manages to be both tough and sympathetic, and this look at human connection, female sexuality, and stigma is welcome and well managed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)