True Confessions of a Heartless Girl [Hardcover]

Martha Brooks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2003

“A quietly astonishing work of art.” – Starred, Quill & Quire

In the midst of a heaven-rattling summer storm a young stranger blows into a small prairie town. On the run after taking her latest boyfriend’s truck, with a pocketful of stolen money and a heart full of pain, seventeen-year-old Noreen Stall seems to invite trouble. And trouble comes soon enough as Noreen’s new mistakes trigger calamities that shake the lives of the residents of Pembina Lake: Lynda Bradley, a divorced mother and owner of a failing café who’s given up on life and love; Dolores Harper, the village elder who, in spite of her signature sweatshirt that says MEDDLING FOR JESUS, has lost her enthusiasm for helping others; and Del Armstrong, a middle-aged bachelor farmer who is still paying for the tragic events of his own seventeenth summer.

Set against the vast skies of a prairie landscape, with a rich cast of unforgettable characters and an unlikely heroine as endearing as she is tough, this affecting novel reminds readers that it’s never too late for forgiveness – and that sometimes the most unlikely messenger can deliver a small miracle.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-At 17, Noreen has led an unhappy life, overloaded with conflict. One stormy night, she drives off in her most recent boyfriend's truck and finds her way to a rundown caf‚ in a small Canadian town. It is operated by a sad and impoverished ex-schoolteacher who is raising her young son, Seth, alone. Noreen's talent for trouble, fed by the fires of her careless bravado, soon surface as she endangers the child's dog by feeding it a chicken bone, and moves on to set a real fire in the bungalow she's been offered as a temporary living space. Flashbacks to Noreen's past reveal her rage at her awful parents, whom she hasn't lived with for years, and her depression and carelessness while living with her boyfriend Wesley. As Brooks knows how to show so well, troubled teens are not the only characters with problems. The adults Noreen encounters in this small town have nightmares of their own, reaching back to times long before she blew into town, and little Seth is truly at the mercy of the emotional storm centered all around him. Although Noreen realizes she is pregnant, and loses the baby within the very short time span of this novel, this is not a "pregnant girl problem story." Instead, it is a clear-eyed and clarifying look at the power of community, and the relative inadequacies of any one individual to weather the storms of life alone.
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 9-12. Pembina Lake is a tiny town with more than its share of the world weary. After escaping an abusive marriage, Lynda runs a cafe and is raising a young son; middle-aged Del carries the guilt of his brother's drowning; and Dolores is coping with her daughter's death. Then 17-year-old Noreen rides into town in a stolen truck--screwed up, knocked up, and so beaten by life that her scarred psyche wakes even the sleep-walking souls in the Molly Thorvaldson Cafe. Noreen, who has ruined her relationship with her baby's father, is a sad spirit, who can't catch a break or do the right thing, even on the rare occasions when she wants to. In 10 short days, she nearly kills Lynda's dog, wrecks Del's house, and ruins the restaurant. The writing is plain, with a flatness about it that mirrors the Canadian prairie where the story is set. The style also suits the novel's bleak mood; even the most horrific events seem somehow expected. The characterizations are bare-to-the-bones as well, but the people are so expertly revealed that their pain is palpable. This is particularly true of Noreen, who has not experienced a major tragedy--just the steady erosion of her soul. The baby sparks something in her, but she miscarries. Then, through the alchemy of shared heartache, she begins to reclaim herself. Heartless once; hopeless no more. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (March 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374378061
• ISBN-13: 978-0374378066
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,502,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What, really, was left but this?, February 6, 2004

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: True Confessions of a Heartless Girl (Hardcover)

Here is the quote that begins "True Confessions of a Heartless Girl":

"The American novelist John Gardner, I think it was, said there are, really, only two plot lines: a stranger rides into town, and a stranger rides out of town", - William Least Heat-Moon "PrairyErth".

This book begins with the former. In it, seventeen-year-old Noreen Stall has arrived at the M.T. Café in a stolen truck, her pockets full of stolen money, and a baby growing in her womb. She has arrived in a small Canadian town in the middle of nowhere without direction or hope. Winner of the 2002 Governor General's Literary Award (think of it as the Canadian Newbery), this book is one of the most quietly moving pieces of young adult literature I have ever read.

Author Martha Brooks has created a small stirring story. Individual characters meet and mix with Noreen, showing their own private sorrows and disappointments in life. The girl herself seems to attract nothing but bad luck and trouble, and it's difficult to see how exactly she's going to change her life around.

This is not a story where everything slowly gets better and better for Noreen until, at the end, she's bursting with enough joy and happiness to fill her days. It's subtler than that. More realistic. And filled with beautiful well-thought out characters. Following in a long line of stories in which a single girl finds herself surrounded by occasionally understanding people, this book is nothing so much as an older version of "The Great Gilly Hopkins".

Moralistic parents beware. This story does contain a fair amount of swearing (though I was amused by the Canadian/British bad word "bugger" showing up as well) in addition to discussions of abortion and miscarriages. And I don't know how interesting this book is to kids and teens. After all, much of this story concentrates on the thoughts and emotions of the middle-aged and elderly. Not typical YA fare. But for any teen that is looking for a book that shows real problems without becoming didactic, preachy, or condescending, this story is ideal. There are no easy answers. Noreen isn't going to be saved by the kindness of strangers. This book deals with the truth and its ending is satisfactory in the extreme.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly Surprised!, June 2, 2003

By 

Cameron M (Toronto, ON) - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Confessions of a Heartless Girl (Hardcover)

But I shouldn't have been. Martha Brooks is a wonderful author, and this book lives up to the high standard set by BONE DANCE.

I often have trouble sympathizing with characters like Noreen, who I sometimes find annoying. But this story drew me in completely and made me care about what happened to everyone. The characters of the elderly women were excellent additions to - it's not every day you find perspective like that in a YA novel.

I like bittersweet endings.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real and unforgettable., July 29, 2004

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Confessions of a Heartless Girl (Hardcover)

Even when Noreen Stall has the best intentions, it seems that she screws everything up. And when she makes so many mistakes that she starts to hate herself, she runs from the people who love her. When she runs away from her boyfriend, taking his truck, money and unborn baby, she finds herself in the small town of Pembina Lake. There she lands in the rundown café owned by Lynda Bradley, a single mother of a three-year-old boy, Seth. Lynda is struggling to make sense of a life that could have been so much more. She lets Noreen stay the night and, in doing so, unleashes a series of events that force the people in the town to take a look at their own lives.

When Dolores Harper, who has a gift for helping people, hears about Noreen, she decides to get her to talk. But while she is helping Noreen open up, she can't see that her "oldest friend in the world" might need her support as well. During her stay at Pembina Lake, Noreen makes many more mistakes, including accidentally poisoning Seth's beloved dog and ripping out part of the wall in the café while trying to remove the fading, ugly wallpaper. Will she run again, or decide to stay?

The characters you meet in this book are real and unforgettable. Watching them help each other along gave me a satisfying feeling.

--- Reviewed by Briana Orr