The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls

Starred review from March 1, 2012
In a novel tailor-made for literature teachers, four unwilling high-school girls and their mothers join a summer book club with both comic and tragic results. In the summer before her junior year, Adrienne, recovering from a knee injury, falls under the influence of beautiful and irresponsible CeeCee, another reluctant member of the book club. Adrienne has always had a good relationship with her mother, but CeeCee flippantly bullies her into late-night excursions that do not end well and pesters Adrienne about her absent father. Reluctant to blame CeeCee for anything, Adrienne instead begins to worry that her single mother sees her as a "mistake." Meanwhile the two other girls, Jill and Wallis have problems of their own. Adrienne constantly re-injures her knee during CeeCee's midnight outings, the mothers begin quarreling with one another and circumstances deteriorate until the girls' final nighttime jaunt ends tragically. Schumacher weaves the narrative around common literary terms, such as setting, mood and conflict, which she illustrates in their respective chapters. Always a bookworm, Adrienne also ties her first-person narration into the five books the club reads, including The Left Hand of Darkness, Frankenstein and The Awakening. The characters, especially the four girls, sparkle, and even amid drama the narration remains lighthearted enough to appeal beyond bookish readers. Smart and insightful. (Realistic fiction. 12 & up)

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June 1, 2012

Gr 8 Up-Presented as an AP English essay assignment, with each chapter heading containing a definition of a literary term, this novel feels like a take on Ann Brashares's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Delacorte, 2001). Fifteen-year-old Adrienne Haus is laid up with a fractured kneecap and torn ACL for the summer so her mother forces her to join a mother-daughter book club. Wealthy, rebellious CeeCee; Jill, an adopted Asian girl; and mysterious, secretive Wallis are the other unlikely teen members. Adrienne is a moody, self-conscious girl, and the complexity of the relationship with her unflappable mother is a pleasure to read, especially as she falls further and further under CeeCee's bad influence. Exceptionally strong characterization and attention to detail thoroughly place readers in a summer suburb in Delaware. Teens need not have read all the classics discussed throughout the book (e.g., The Yellow Wallpaper, Frankenstein, The Left Hand of Darkness, The House on Mango Street, and The Awakening), although some familiarity with them certainly enriches the story. Adrienne is a thoughtful reader, applying quotes from each of the books to real-life situations. However, like Catherine in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, she lets her imagination run away with her and incorrectly dreams up horrible scenarios that lead to a highly foreshadowed, yet suspenseful, tragic ending.-Madigan McGillicuddy, Gwinnett County Public Library, GA

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Grades 8-11 Despite the chick-lit-at-the-pool cover image, this story has both significant momentum and substance. Narrated by 15-year-old Adrienne, stuck for the summer in humid suburban Delaware, Schumacher's latest follows the exploits of four girls who are thrown together in a mother-daughter book club. In this entertaining AP English variation on The Breakfast Club, Adrienne begins each chapter with her definition of a literary term, such as epiphany, which she likens to an EpiPen: something that gets injected into the main character so she suddenly sees things differently. The book-club selections, such as Frankenstein and Kate Chopin's The Awakening, and the related discussions, are woven into the narrative, but it is Adrienne's new acquaintances who drive the plot: CeCe, the popular girl with a need to provoke, pushes Adrienne and the others into several dicey situations. Schumacher offers up sharp dialogue throughout as well as a compelling, insecure, always-questioning narrator. And although the ending feels rushed, leaving loose ends, the book should at least spur further reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)