Customer Reviews

Crush (An AlyCat Title)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

(minor semi-spoilers ahead)
Honest without being bitter, sexual without being pornographic, and like a shot of emotion direct to the heart, "Crush" was a very well-written book that was easy to relate to. I'm a gay teenager, and I'm in a small town that reacts to lesbians the same way the people in the boarding school did. When I read Jinx's feelings towards Lexie, I just sat there thinking "My god, that's me with [insert girl's name here]" (even though I doubt [insert girl's name here] would act as cruel and thoughtless as Lexie did).

Any book that can suck me in with its drama rather than make me feel jaded and cause me to feel the same emotions as the leading character is an instant classic on my list. I had to put down the book several times to tell myself that Lexie was fiction and not actually betraying Jinx (and all her readers). But then I remembered the Lexies in my life, and in the lives of millions of other lesbian teenagers. I wish that I could send a copy of this book to all of those "other lesbian teenagers", with a little note inside saying "You are not alone".

I've read a lot of GLBT young adult fiction. I wonder why it is that all the lesbian ones are in first person and told from the butchier girl's perspective? Maybe it's some kind of unwritten rule. Right next to the one that says one of the girls should have a funky name, like Battle or Holland. The main protagonist here is named Jinx, and the action takes place at a boarding school for girls in about 1964. An aspiring artist, Jinx becomes infatuated with an unstable girl at her school named Lexie. Jinx is very doormatish, and lets her actions be dictated by Lexie, to the point that she's doing some incredibly stupid things. When she finally gets a backbone and tries to put a stop to it, Lexie does not react well.

The story is interesting, but I frequently wanted to smack Jinx for lusting such a screwed up girl and putting up with her crap. There's at least some hope that she's going to start sticking up for herself more in the future, but I can't budge the feeling that, if this book had continued into Jinx's later life, we'd find that she'd done what was expected of a girl in that time period, and given up her artistic dreams to find herself a nice husband.

This book rings so true it made my skin crawl at each turn of the page.The depiction of all characters is outstanding, and bundled together in a way to actually make you feel this is a TRUE story. This innocent, good-at-heart girl, incapable of harming a fly, who will rather cry herself to sleep rather than fight back any injustice, fighting to know herself and find her place in the world... Miggin, the faithful friend, supporting her friend no matter the circumstances... Nicky, Woodie, these adults who help perpetuate the hypocrisy, one more willingly and the other by omission of action... Laura and Maddy, epitomes of rich-girl-that-has-to-have-her-way... And last but obviously not least, Lexie, egotistical to the point of making me want to spit in her face, who will hurt anyone and everyone for the sole purpose of achieving her own goals, capable of sacrifying everyone and everything but herself. She seemed to me the perfect picture of a very dangerous sociopath on the loose, on the first stages of developing and forming a cunning, fox-like personality that --you know it and Jinx says it-- will help her go through to life killing herself on her Jaguar or running over anyone that is innocent enough to cross her path.


This book really impressed me, it's one of the few I've read in this "genre" that doesn't have that "sappy" tendency to make it all right in the end. It rings true, cruelly true.

The young ladies of Huntington Hill are simply classic. Jinx, Lexie and the rest of the Huntington crew are the epitome of high school girls feeling their way to their own sexuality. Jane Futcher does an incredible job in making these characters not only come to life, but remind yourself how your teenage years weren't exactly the "best times of your life." The main character Jinx, an ant like character, seems harmless from the beginning until the end of the novel, but one thing is for sure she knows how to carry more than just her weight. She does what almost every young lesbian had to do at the beginning of their outness...take care of themselves. She embraces the few women who blink in and out of her life with such speciality that you begin to almost feel what and how she's feeling it.

No one minded Lexie sleeping around with her cousin and other men, but because they believed Jinx was a lesbian, the school staff went against her. This school sounds eerily like one I once went to. I couldn't believe the way the staff treated Jinx, like she was a leper.

This book is very well-written and sad. There is no happily-ever-after, which makes the book realistic. The private school students in this book are emotionally confused, and the attitudes surrounding them about what is normal makes the reader see why there are people in such pain.

I recommend this book highly. If you are disturbed by sexual situations between members of the same or opposite sex, then don't read it. Sex is not presented pornographically, and the portrayal about teens and crushes is very realistic.

This book started off nicely, and I think the author had a great idea, what with the all-girls boarding school and all. However, the ending left much to be desired. I couldn't help feeling a bit cheated because the ending just left the reader hanging. I didn't like the way the story cut off, with the reader still wondering what would happen to the characters. Or maybe I'm just an idealist, disliking everything that doesn't come equipped with a nice, happy ending.

I absolutely adored this book. It started out a bit slow and innocent, but once the story got going, all I wanted to do was read, read, read. The charachters were likable, even Lexie who was a very unreliable, confused charachter. The emotional content was superb. Everything Jinx felt I felt as well. Many of the situations were very familliar and I liked the alternative veiw the girls in the book had on the meaning of the word "crush." It was beautifully written, beautifully created and my heart ached greatly as I finished the story. Being a writer myself, and as silly as it may sound, these charachters hold something very deep for me

The beginning of this book got me absolutely hooked, with the innocent main character's developing crush on her more confident classmate. As the book went on, however, it became an ultimately depressing novel with very little new happening.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I was looking for a good glbt teen type novel, and I found this one at a used book store in my area. I finally got a chance to read it, and I had the hardest time putting it down. What Jinx felt, I felt too. Like I was here and I was the one being torn down my Lexie and being condmned by the Nicky. It felt real like what Jinx was going through was happening to me too, it was kind of scary. Whenever Lexie hurt Jinx or took advantage of her or played with her emotions like she did, I wanted to go up to Lexie and smack her and yell at her and tell her what a terrible, inhumane person she was. Lexie, on some level, reminds me of a girl I know (accept this girl is bi and open about it). Just the way she used Jinx and played with her like that remdinds me of this girl. I just wonder how someone like Lexie could have the audacity to be cruel to someone who loves her so much??? I guess this is why they book is so good, it's like a slice of real life. I loved this book immensely.

I did enjoy this book very much. This was a book I had picked at random to the interesting explination on the back cover. At first impression, you may think Lexie is a beautiful but a bit screwy character. Reading on, I seemed to have mixed feelings about this character.
She confused me and just at time I smiled, and others I just got very angry. When later when we find out about Lexie 'fibbing'(I'll leave it at that.) then I got really angry that I almost threw down this book. Jinx's standing up was very refreshing. Overall, I find it a very nice book.