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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forgiveness and the Average Girl, June 4, 2007
Imagine you made a mistake as a teenager. A big mistake. Now imagine you made this mistake in a small town when you were thirteen years old.
Sara Zarr's moving "Story of a Girl" tells just this tale from the point of view of sixteen-year-old Deanna Lambert. At age 13, Deanna was caught "in the act" with her older brother's best friend. By her father. Oh, and Deanna and the boy were in a parked car.
Small towns being what they are, it takes only a day for Deanna's story to spread throughout Pacifica. From that moment on Deanna is the "school sl*t" (despite the fact she's avoided boys since the incident) and at home life isn't much better. Dad--nearly three years later--has yet to recover from finding his daughter in a car with a seventeen-year-old boy and he barely talks to Deanna.
"Story of a Girl" opens on the final day of Deanna's sophomore year. She's feeling stuck--in her small town, in her reputation, and in her family. Zarr does a great job in showing the depression--economic and emotional--of a place down on its luck. Deanna's only job option is a rundown pizza joint. Her parents professional lives have been downsized--Mom working in a Mervyns and Dad in an auto parts supply store. Deanna's much-loved older brother lives in the basement with his new wife and baby. Deanna's brother and his wife work in the grocery store. With everyone working retail hours, no one is home at the same time and the house is sliding into disrepair.
Deanna dreams of escape--of saving her money and moving out with her brother and his family. But escape is hard to come by when you are sixteen and live in a small town. Instead, Deanna must come to terms with what happened and forgive herself and others. Over the course of just this one summer, Deanna, with a few mistakes along the way, finds peace with herself, her reputation, her town, and her family. It's a beautiful gem of a book, one that will stay with me forever.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An honest book with a lot of heart, July 16, 2007
This story grabbed me from page one. What drew me in were the interesting setting and true-to-life characters-- not just the teenage girl narrating the book, but her three-dimensional friends and coworkers and family, all with their own stories and heartaches and flaws. The story seems simple: A girl in a small working-class town near San Francisco cannot leave her bad reputation behind and cannot get her father's forgiveness. Or can she? But the story is not really simple, because the people in it are so complicated. By writing with honesty and truth and heart, Zarr made me feel deeply about all the characters and about how their stories would resolve.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Forgiveness and Redemption, January 10, 2007
At the age of thirteen, Deanna's father found her in the backseat of a car with her older brother's friend, Tommy. The rumors which quickly spread around her small town and her school were horrible, but even worse was the look in her father's eyes. In the three years since the incident, Deanna's dad has given her the cold shoulder, constantly reminding her of the disappointment and embarrassment of that night.
Now sixteen, even though she has dated no one and done nothing, Deanna has been unable to shake her bad reputation. The only classmates she calls friends, Lee and Jason, are dating each other. She feels like a third wheel when they hang out - and a stab of jealousy when she sees Lee wearing Jason's shirt.
Deanna's new job at a pizza place almost offers her more than she can handle. She is surprised to find a new friend in Michael, the middle-aged manager, and even more surprised to find Tommy, her brother's old friend, as a co-worker. Deanna stays put, determined not to let Tommy's presence get the best of her.
At home, she finds reprieve from her brisk father and her nervous mother in her brother Darren, who lives in the basement with his girlfriend and their infant. Deanna secretly wants to move out with Darren, Stacy, and April, planning on contributing to their rent and bills with her modest paycheck.
During this impressionable summer, Deanna realizes that maybe, just maybe, she can stop worrying about who people think she is and become who she is meant to be. That instead of looking back, she can look forward.
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