Customer Reviews

Girls in Trouble: A Novel

5 star:		(83)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Caroline Leavitt -the author of this book is one girl who is not in trouble. Her sensitive portrayal of a birth mother and an adoptive mother and the tragedy and escasty of what brings them together and then drives them apart is an outstanding accomplishment. Managing to never dismiss or diminish the emotions of any of the so true to life characters in this novel, Leavitt keeps the reader engrossed and caring, and at least for this reader, occassionally crying.

Leavitt, author of seven previous novels, wings her way effortlessly through a laybrinth of emotion that never gets cloying as it illuminates the conflicts of the human heart.

Well done. A breakout novel if there ever was one.

You would think that a book on the subject of a troubled open adoption would be terribly depressing, but even though I was going through issues while reading this book for the first time three years ago, it isn't. There is something remarkably hopeful and uplifting in this book, a kind of sense that love really is timeless and all encompassing and there is always hope in the end for a good result. You don't have to be a sixteen year old with a baby to get the message of this book.

This book is a story about a young girl named Sara, who is smart, bookish and shy. And then she meets Danny, who is everything she is not. Incredibly, he loves her. But as soon as the two 15 year olds find out that she is pregnant, everything goes to hell. Danny disappears and Sara is left too pregnant for an abortion with her parents, who only want for her to give up the baby for adoption and move on with her brilliant life and plans.

Here come in Eva and George, two loving, caring, people in their forties who want a baby and cannot have one. So they decide to adopt. During Sara's pregnancy they are everything her parents are not. Supportive and kind they become a kind of extra-parent set for Sara. But as soon as her baby, Anne, is born, things change. Eva and George want time with their baby, but Sara can't stop loving her child, or the adoptive parents. Soon this escalates to jealousy, confrontation, fighting, and a decision that changes five lives forever. The "girls in trouble" of the title refers not only to the old saying used for pregnant teens in the 50's, but to the consequences of the decision on Sara and Anne.

The plot sounds depressing and sad and a little hopeless, but this is about, almost, absolution for our faults and coming full circle after great trial and trauma. The author's turn of phrase is amazing, especially when it comes to expressing all kinds of love and devotion in a non-sappy way. I don't have children, and never went through the kind of situation that happened to Sara but I can still relate to the emotions behind this book. Anyone could with how well it is written. You will laugh, cry, and be sad when this book is over. Recommend highly.

Five stars.

The subjects of teenage pregancy and open adoption are sure to push alot of buttons during any group discussion, and the author certainly provides plenty of fodder for conversation. I felt for the character of Sara; young and intellegent with nothing but promise and success maped out in her future, she finds herself deep in the throws of adolescent love with a boy from the "wrong side of the tracks". An unplanned pregnancy results and Sara for all her intellegence childishly chooses to ignore things until too late. She proceeds with an open adoption which of course we know is headed for disaster. I thought the issues of maternal devotion and insecurity(by both the birth and adopted mothers), were accurately portrayed and painfully realistic. The birth father appears to have no interest in the child and although Sara is forced to move on with her life, she is never fully able to let go of the baby she left behind. The book provides a satisfying conclusion (no sugar coating here), on what is a complicated and emotionally laden issue. There are no winners here just a oddly comprised "family" struggling to make a life for themselves. A few of the characters were fairly weak (Sara's parents were paper thin, and Danny's mother was a little sterotypical), but overall a good effort by this author.

...Barbara Kingsolver! Girls in Trouble grabbed me the way the Bean Trees did. Only this isn't Caroline Leavitt's first novel, you've got 7 more to enjoy after she hooks you with the latest. I do not use the word "hooks" lightly. I read Girls in Trouble on a flight from Los Angeles to Denver, and for the first time in my over travelled life was disappointed that the flight was not longer, long enough at least to finish this gripping story. Most every one has asked themselves a question that begins with, "How would I feel if..." and most women have asked themselves the question, "How would I feel if I got pregnant?" "What would I do?" It is admittedly one of the most personally and politically charged questions of our time. In Girls in Trouble, Caroline Leavitt involves us in the both agonizing and joyful struggle of one girl's attempt to answer it. For immediate purchase and enjoyment only.

I am usually the type to read the silly 20-30ish female drama fictions however I found this book at my library. It's definantly different than the others that I read.

I loved it. It was very easy reading and an emotional roller coaster.

I sat up many nights telling my husband, "I'll turn the light off after this chapter" and wound up reading a few more because I couldn't put it down.

Now that I finished it, I can't wait to try other books by this Author.

I loved this book. I started it and immediatly got sucked in. The story is so raw and beautifully written. I could not stand putting the book down. Caroline Leavitt knows how to write about a touchy issue with great knowledge and care. The characters are so rich and full of depth. There are no winners or losers in the book. It is easy to identify and support each character in the choices that they make, even if the choices are not easy or what would be deemed by some as the right choices to make. "Girls in Trouble" is wonderful, and I wish the story never ended. It is a beautiful read. Flawless.

Girls in Trouble was one of the best, most engrossing novels I have read in a while. The pain felt by both Sara and Eva and George is so real I could feel a heavyness in my chest while I read this book (even sneaking a quick page or two at work). Several parts broke my heart, but it was a pretty real idea book. Not much sugar coating. The only think I sort of secretly wished was for Sara to have been able to gotten back together....call me a hopeless romantic fool. R

Caroline Leavitt is generous with her readers; she gives us believable people who win our hearts while they make mistakes. I loved this book as a mother, a daughter, and a writer. It was captivating because nothing was predictable, yet she maintains hope in the darkest of times. Another winner by Ms. Leavitt!!

The drama in Caroline Leavitt's Girls in Trouble erupts in the first line, plunging us into her heartbreaking story as we meet Sara, a teenager in the throes of labor. Leavitt never shies in her treatment of this difficult subject---the conflicted feelings and sometimes sticky relationships between birth mothers and adoptive parents, and the idea that when a child is born the ripples she creates move into the world at times in tidal waves, at others in tremors. But the tremors remain to forever influence those involved. Through her rich, radiant prose Caroline Leavitt takes us on a journey, as the best novels do, to the center of the human heart. She has created dynamic, flawed characters-parents Jack and Abby, birth parents Eva and George, boyfriend Danny, Sara and daughter Anne--and through these deft portrayals illuminates both the soul and shadow side of family ties. Reading this book I entered the lives of people in crisis, of a sixteen-year-old girl trying to unravel the complex world of adolescence, motherhood, and family. I emerged understanding family a little more, thinking, yes-this is how we are. Girls in Trouble reflects our lives in the deepest way.

Caroline Leavitt's writing is so full of life and passion that I was swept along on the wave of every sentence. This is a deeply intelligent, heartbreakingly moving novel of family intersections , of growing up, of learning hard lessons, and most of all, the infinite possibilities of love. Leavitt is in top form here.