Customer Reviews

My Tiki Girl

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

 

 

I'm a far-from-young adult but I do like to read YA novels now and then, and I finished this one in less than a day, just because I was eager to know how it turned out. I was rooting for Maggie and Dahlia because they are both enormously likeable characters, both dealing with very difficult circumstances and yet able to maintain a sense of humor and empathize with others. Yes, maybe I'd have liked a happier ending, but this is a REALISTIC ending. Ditto the main and supporting characters, very believable. Nobody's all good or all bad, they just have all-too-human flaws. And even if you're neither a teenager nor a lesbian, the feelings Maggie expresses will ring true, the equal parts elation and frustration when you love someone but can't say so, when you think it MIGHT be mutual but don't know quite how to be sure. Jennifer McMahon gets it, and she knows how to write it. You don't hear the author's voice, you hear MAGGIE's voice, and by the end of the book, Maggie seems like a friend you've known a long time.

Now I am hoping that the very end of the book might leave room for a sequel. I'd certainly like to read the next chapter in Maggie's life.

Maggie Keller used to be popular - before the accident she thinks she caused, that killed her mother. Now she walks with a limp and has a scar - and is drawn to different people such as Dahlia, the strange new girl at school. Their volatile friendship involves a degree of romance and a lot of confusion in this story of first love and hardship, recommended for advanced teen readers.

Maggie was in a car accident with her mom. The crash resulted in the death of her mother and her leg being put back together with pins and screws. Maggie feels like Frankenstein's monster partially because of her leg and largely because of how ugly she feels over her own guilt in her mother's death. She has let her guilt eat a hole into her life, wrecking her relationships with her friends, her dad, and even the boy she was seeing. Nothing is ever going to be like it was before the accident.

Suddenly, there is a new girl in school who mocks everything about her previous life without knowing it. Dahlia Wainwright is a punk girl who reads poetry and smokes cloves. And even though Maggie decides to keep many things a secret from the get go she immediately shows Dahlia her scar. It is this simple act that wins Dahlia from the word go.

Right away Dahlia and Maggie are inseparable. Dahlia introduces Maggie to her crazy family; her younger brother, Jonah, who thinks he's a wizard and her mother, Leah, who has been in and out of mental institutions and now self-medicates with alcohol and entertaining her children with wild stories. Leah collects dolls, which she names to represent people in her life, and has a sad clown doll for Maggie that she names LaSamba. Dahlia has a hula girl named Tiki. Pretty soon Dahlia and Maggie slip from their real lives to this make believe life of Tiki and LaSamba, and Maggie starts to develop feelings for the bohemian punk Dahlia that are more than platonic. But when Dahlia starts to reveal her real desires, which are to have a normal life, can Maggie bring herself to quell her desire for Dahlia so she can be "normal" again?

This book started out strong for me, though it did remind me a touch of the film "Heavenly Creatures". I was right on board with it, until the ending, which I felt like was against type of the few characters who brought it about. The fact that McMahon wrote the few key players so specifically and then had them do a 180 on their personality in the final moments made me wonder two things. 1) Had she written herself into a corner in the end and had to rely on stereotypes for a young adult lesbian novel... and 2) Was it her intent to write a stereotyped lesbian novel from the get go, but did she add enough quirks to this to make it interesting in the beginning? I liked it in the start. I really did. But I hated the ending. Hated it. Hated it. Hated it. Why would these characters turn on each other like they did? It made no sense. And it ruined the book for me.

A for effort, but with the ending, I gotta give it a C. She had me at hello... she lost me at "Abomination!"

Maggie Keller's life turned upside down the day she forgot Toto. In eighth grade, Maggie was cast as Dorothy, the lead in The Wizard of Oz. As her mom is driving her to rehearsal, Maggie shouts out that she forgot the stuffed dog at home. Her mom, without checking the traffic around them, turns the car around and causes an accident.

Maggie was once the most popular girl in her class. But after the accident, she has a deformed leg, and considers herself the Frankenstein of the class. Her ex-best friend, Sukie, is the new #1 girl and has a new best friend, Heather. Maggie is on the fringes of school society now.

When Dahlia Wainwright arrives at school, the two form their own exclusive freak club. Dahlia lives by her own rules, not caring what others think. Maggie tries to live that way ATA (after the accident.) Maggie is enamored with Dahlia's home life. Jonah, Dahlia's younger brother, thinks he's magical. And Dahlia's mom, Leah, weaves creative worlds with the dolls that she collects. Leah welcomes Maggie into their lives, dubbing her "LaSamba," the sad clown.

Slowly, Maggie starts to question her feelings for Dahlia. A simple touch of Dahlia's hand causes sparks inside Maggie. Maggie has never felt like this before, certainly not with Sukie, and in hindsight, not with her old boyfriend, Albert.

Soon, the school is hearing rumors about Maggie and Dahlia. For all Dahlia's talk of not caring, she has started to enjoy popularity, and doesn't want to disappear into the unknown again.

The issues in MY TIKI GIRL are definitely for an older reader. Though there are no actual sex scenes in the story, the underlying context is very apparent and may be too much for a younger reader. Maggie struggles to come to terms with whom she is and who she is supposed to be. With a distant father at home, and unusual friends at school, Maggie must decide what it is she wants and go after it.

Reviewed by: Jaglvr

I liked the book overall and would recommend it, but i thought the ending came a little fast. It was like a huge build up, then over. If you like her first two books, don't expect another one with this because it is very diffrent but it still worth the read if you like a book with a little quirk.

I thought Id like this but i only read 2 chapters and had to put away,, maybe this is better for young girls. She is a great author and I will buy her next!!! who knows i may pick it up again and read it all. but I kind of felt like this was a young lesbian girls read.., which I'm neither. Its not boring but it just did not grab me like her other 2. which I could not put down.