26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A coming-of-age book for the nineties with brains and soul!, June 1, 1999
By A Customer
Looking for a smart, sensitive portrayal of teenagers growing up in the late nineties? Hard Love is the book for you. Jaded junior high and high school students, young college students and parents alike will be amazed at Wittlinger's perceptive, hard-hitting, complex young adult novel.
As a graduate student, I expected to feel mildly engaged with Hard Love; but to my surprise, I became deeply involved with this work. The first-person narrative of the main character, a high school junior named John, held my attention from the somewhat inauspicious beginning.
John is a young man who doesn't know if he's straight, gay, angry, happy, bored, or abandoned. His mother hasn't touched him at all since his father walked out on them years before, and his father is a wealthy playboy who gives John freedom--freedom to be ignored, freedom to turn into a block of ice.
At first, John infuriated me. I wanted him to talk, to stop whining, to tell his parents what was really going on. He comes across as a loner, a loser of a kid who's intelligent enough but keeps the world at a huge distance.
Luckily, John's world is blown open when he meets Marisol, who produces her own 'zine and calls herself a "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee lesbian."
I delighted in watching Wittlinger develop John's character from this point on as he discovers worlds of creativity, love, and strength. John's young, raw voice becomes a focal point for the labyrinth of teenage emotional life.
By the conclusion, my emotions were so completely bound up with John's that I cried with both pain and joy at the resolutions--and non-resolutions--of the novel.
The teenagers in Hard Love are complex. Alienated, motivated, creative, needy, dependent, raw, and discovering their place in a human community, they write 'zines, create music, run away from problems, face parental failings, and in general deal with the painful world in various original and authentic ways.
In creating John and Marisol, Wittlinger combines skill, knowledge, and sensitivity. Added bonuses are references to Ani DiFranco and Bob Franke, plus great tips on the world of 'zines and lyrical descriptions of the Boston and Cape Cod areas.
This 26-year-old found Hard Love an emotionally and intellectually satisfying, even fulfilling read. I'd suggest you buy it now!
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hard Love Hits Hard, April 15, 2000
Before I read this book I was told how terrific it was by fellow librarians, that is all fine and good but it seems often when we love a title the audience it was truly meant for does not feel the same. I don't think that will be the case with Wittlinger's stunning coming of age story about a very confused teenager trying to define himself and those around him. John (or Giovanni as he calls himself) both reads and writes Zines (homemade magazines) hoping to find some of the answers he is searching, for he even strikes up a friendship with fellow zine writer Marisol. Through their platonic relationship both are able to discover some painful truths about themselves. On this road to self discovery John unwittingly finds himself falling in love though Marisol has been up front about her homsexuality from the beginning. On top of this John has a completely affectionless relationship with both his parents, since they divorced six years ago and finds his only school friend "Brian" a cheery annoyance. This is a book with three dimensional characters that could be your neighbor your friends or even you. Which is the reason I beleive middle schoolers and high schoolers alike, may just agree with myself and all those other librarians who are raving about this title.
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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
HARD LOVE tells it like it is, February 21, 2000
By A Customer
There are lots of trite, silly, and thoroughly unimaginative books out there that call themselves "young-adult novels." Their intended audience is supposedly teenagers, but most intelligent teenagers who enjoy reading good books quickly give up on the genre entirely, turned off by the one-dimensional characters and sometimes astoundingly bad writing. People my age (high school/college age) who love to read do NOT usually turn to the young-adult genre for our books.
HARD LOVE is the reason we should rethink our decision. For one thing, the writing is excellent, especially the dialogue. For another, the characters are entirely true to life, and Ellen Wittlinger is able to make you care deeply about what happens to them. (And they are decidedly NOT "teen flick" material, as the review from the Horn Book suggested!) She has also given her characters an interesting and emotionally complex story. But the best thing about this book is that it feels REAL. Everything about this book works, and it is a joy to read and reread. If you enjoy intelligent stories that are able to make you both think and feel, you must read this book, no matter what your age.
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