Lucky Girl

February 13, 2017
This affecting tale of survival and rebirth centers on Rosie Fuller, the most beautiful girl at Midcity High. It’s a shock to Rosie when the summer ends and her “sporty, STEM-y” best friend, Maddie Costello, returns to Omaha looking like a model. Rosie is determined to be supportive, so when Maddie admits to a long-standing crush on Rosie’s summer fling, Cory Callahan, Rosie sets aside her jealousy, cuts ties with Cory, and gives Maddie her blessing. The situation is awkward but manageable—until a tornado hits during a house party and the attendees must spend the night. Drunkenness ensues, and Cory tries to rape Rosie; Maddie interrupts and assumes that Rosie instigated the encounter. Guilt, shame, and fear plague Rosie, but she copes with the help of Alex Goode, a transfer student with his own baggage who convinces Rosie that she’s more than just a pretty face. Maciel (Tease) offers a nuanced take on her characters’ individual situations (Rosie isn’t the only character to suffer trauma) and approaches their stories with empathy and respect. Ages 14–up. Agent: Holly Root, Waxman Leavell Literary.

March 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Rosie loves to flirt and relishes others' attention. Now in her junior year of high school, she is making an effort to be better to her best and only female friend, Maddie. When Maddie admits that she has a crush on Rosie's current fling, Cory, Rosie steps aside and tries to move on, focusing instead on the new boy in school, Alex. Cory, now Maddie's boyfriend, assaults Rosie at a party, and Maddie walks in on them. It destroys the girls' friendship, as Maddie believes that Rosie wants to steal her boyfriend, and Rosie blames herself for being too flirtatious. This is a slow-moving, potentially harmful exploration of sexual assault. While the book attempts to address the important issue of victim-blaming, it is poorly executed. At times, Rosie is told to "stop crying," and she is constantly apologizing for her assault, insisting that she is "not trying to be one of those girls." Without any resolution or allies until the final pages, Rosie faults herself for the majority of the story. VERDICT While many women and girls do unfortunately believe they are to blame for their assaults, without any related front or back matter, and with the resolution coming too late, this is a problematic novel and not recommended for general purchase.-Ariel Birdoff, New York Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2017
A Nebraska teen blames herself for unwanted attention that might be sexual assault. White Rosie, with her pale, Angelina Jolie-like beauty, is used to being leered at by boys and men--and she likes it. Her skewed, immature worldview keeps her from seeing that her best friend, Maddie, back from a summer in Spain, no longer needs her social guidance. Even before junior year, Rosie has hooked up with one guy after another, earning her a reputation for "the famous Rosie Fuller Stopwatch." At a party with her friends (mostly also white), Rosie floats from the "best part of the night, the just-beginning-to-get-drunk part," to being too drunk to fully comprehend what's happening when Cory, a football player who "looks like someone's Hollywood version of a corn-fed Midwestern boy," begins to force himself on her, stopping only when Maddie appears. Rosie's assumption that the near rape was her own fault stems from the self-centeredness she's developed by being constantly in the spotlight. Through Rosie's present-tense narration, Maciel examines societal pressures on girls to equate self-worth and looks. The book's message is delivered in an uneven way, however, depicting the very real perils that young women face in the context of a somewhat dated, superficial version of high school life. What is realistic, though, is the fact that such experiences are rarely wrapped up neatly. A thought-provoking look at the good-girl/bad-girl dichotomy. (Fiction. 13-17)

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