Customer Reviews

Story Of A Girl (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

The story line was good, I liked the characters, well, I hated the dad but that just means Zarr wrote a great character. I didn't feel connected to Deanna. What happened to her when she was 13 was heartbreaking, but I didn't feel her pain. When I read the novel I was never drown in, I had to push myself to finish because I wanted to see how she handled it but I "knew" I was reading a book, I didn't feel like I was "in" the story.

Have you ever done something that you wish you could take back? Something that changed your life forever?

We've all been there. We've all done something that we regret. Just like all of us, Deanna was once caught doing something that she wasn't proud of. Unfortunately for her, it almost ruined her teen years. Just one dumb relationship, sprinkled with naiveté and trust, and suddenly Deanna finds herself with the vulgar label of the school whore. It wasn't what she'd asked for; she'd only ever been with one guy. But the stories just won't stop. Like a horrible rerun of a hated sitcom, it seems like everywhere she turns, Deanna is confronted with what she did one night in a boy's car--and the fact that her father caught her doing it.

Deanna's story is touching, and the worst example of how one event can seem to define a person's life. But like the fighter she is, Deanna tries to move on and just live her life as normally as possible, with her two best friends and her family. But her family life isn't exactly picturesque. Her older brother, his wife Stacy, and their baby daughter are living in the basement. Her father is always arguing with Stacy, and Deanna thinks that he hates Stacy almost as much as he hates her since that fateful night when Deanna's life fell apart. Her mother loves her and tries so hard to give Deanna the care that she needs, but somehow it doesn't quite make up for the fact that their family is just barely scraping by. On top of all that, Deanna doesn't know if she'll ever make it out of Pacifica, a little dump of a town in the otherwise glamorous state of California.

After sophomore year is over, Deanna is stuck at home all summer. To get out of the house and keep her busy, she gets her first job at a little local pizza parlor. There, she discovers that the same boy who came so close ruining her life three years earlier is now her co-worker. While she struggles to understand her feelings towards him, she is also struggling at home to live with the strange family arrangement and someday find a way out.

Over the course of the summer, Deanna learns a lot about herself, her friends, and her family. By the time she returns to high school as a junior, she has a much better understanding of who she is, and that nobody else can define her. Sara Zarr did a wonderful job of creating Deanna, such a vulnerable character whose thoughts and actions are so believable. Never again will I judge somebody from a story I once heard about them, after seeing Deanna's account of just how much that can hurt.

Reviewed by: Amber Gibson

Story of a girl by Sara Zarr was not the best book I've ever read. It did though have a pleasant ending. The beginning was slow and difficult to get through. The end was nice because Deanna learns who her true friends are. Also she learned that she can change who her past has made her become!

Here's a book perfect for anyone who's done something they regret (and this is everyone).

A little question before I get started: What image of Deanna did you draw when you first read the book description? I pictured her as a gentle girl, mousy even, struggling to keep her act together. I mean, being with Tommy all those years ago was a humbling mistake, right?

No, not really. It was a hardening mistake. Deanna's degree of isolation, her confusion, the envy she feels for other people who don't have to deal with the past she's got--it all adds up to the rock-hard cold front she puts up. It's the only way she has of surviving the alienation and ostracism she still faces, three years after the fact. But no one is to be fooled--she's got a heartbreaking inside.

When the book opens, it's the summer before junior year and Deanna's looking for a job. She drops off applications at a few locations before coming to the conclusion that her chances of being hired at any of those places is near zero, on account of her reputation. So, she takes a rather undesirable job at a dingy pizza joint. This becomes monumental to the story because not only does the owner become one of the few people who accepts Deanna, but also because Tommy also works there. It's hell for Deanna at first--how could it not be?--but she bravely powers through it. The summer becomes one of change, where Deanna finally faces and tests everything in her life: her friendships, her relationship with her father, and her entire predicament. She learns valuable lessons, the most important of which is that she cannot let people keep defining her by one mistake.

This book is beautiful, with strong characters, tight writing, fast pacing, and a nice message. I'd recommend it to anyone--it's about time people saw the other side, the inside, of someone tormented by one-sided rumors. Dazzling debut. I'll be sure to read Sweethearts by Sara Zarr as well.

Grade: 8/10

As a reader I am always taken aback when I come across a book that feels real. The kind that brings you into its story with a character you'd swear is alive. This is such a book.

The story takes place during Deanna's summer going into her junior year of high school. But, the chapters are flickering with back story that give us a strong sense of Deanna's past (when she was thirteen her dad caught her having sex with a seventeen year old in the back of a car; she endures ensuing rumors, which leave her looking like a "skank" in the eyes of her peers). The urgency for Deanna to face her past pulses as she begins to crumble and fall apart before the reader's eyes.

I think what struck me most with this book is how Deanna Lambert grows without any sort of "token" from the outside world involved (she does get a job at a pizza place, but it's not the ultimate conduit of change). And that's important, that change occurs out of her NEED to change. How often do we come across a character who changes during the course of a story without some sort of contrived experience to catapult her forward? Deanna has her past and her present. That's all. She grows out of a WILLINGNESS to change and strengthen. She's tired of who she has become and right before she falls apart, confronts those demons of her past so she can move forward.

Zarr gives her reader hope: it doesn't take money, weaponry, magical elves, potions, adventures or heroes to pull a person out of desperation. All it takes is what we have: a mind, a voice and a willingness to forgive.

The start of my day was rather boring so I decided to take a trip to the bookstore to get a few books to occupy myself on this chilly Sunday in Florida. The first book that caught my eye was Story of a Girl mainly because I had seen the title floating around on Amazon somewhere, so I made a decision to purchase it. When I arrived home, the moment I opened the book ... I was immediately drawn into the story. I could not put the book down, not for one second and I didn't stop reading the book until the last page, two hours later.

The story is about a sixteen year old girl named Deanna. About three years ago, she was caught having sex in a car with her older brother's best friend by her own father and even years later, he doesn't really talk to her. Her older brother is a young father with a baby girl and lives with his girlfriend in his parents' basement. Deanna wishes to leave her parents' home with her brother and his little family but that is just a wish. But aside from her older brother, his girlfriend, and daughter to make her sane, she also has two friends who are dating ... which makes things rather awkward between them.

The end of her sophomore year is over and she is thankful because she didn't have to deal with the constant taunting of her classmates about the incident that happened years ago. The incident that was leaked out by her brother's best friend and dubbed her as the school slut. But when good things happen, bad things come along to take that happiness. Deanna wants to save up money to move in with her brother and his family when they move out, so she decides to get a summer job at a pizza place but ... when she gets hired, she realizes that one of the employees is actually the very boy who caused all hell in her life. '

This is a beautifully crafted tale and I misted up twice while reading. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a beautiful realistic contemporary novel about a girl who tries to deal with the daily obstacles in her life.

(reviewed by melody age 13)

This story pulled you in from the very first page. It told a story of a girl trying to find her way through life, with a reputation from her past that everyone in town knew about, even 5 years later. Deanna wanted to prove to people that her past shouldn't control who she is now, but the hardest person to convince is her own father, who had seen it happen with his own eyes. Since her older brother and his girlfriend had a baby, it's hard for her dad to believe that Deanna wouldn't end up with a baby, too.

Deanna also struggles with friendship; her only two friends are boyfriend and girlfriend and jealousy seems to appear. Deanna begins to feel as if she can't be a good friend, and this could ruin their friendship.

Deanna develops a lot as a character and soon enough the people around her begin to respect her more and more. I could not wait to pick up the book again every time I had to put it down. I hope others will enjoy this book as much as I did and I encourage people to read it.