Very realistic book! Not only did Story of a Girl explore the troubled lives of teenagers, it showed the impact the importance of the support of family and friends. When I first ordered this, I thought it would be just another melodramatic book jam-packed with teen angst, but the plot delved much deeper than I expected.

I'd definitely recommend that you read this book.

This book weaves the tale of a girl who cannot shake a bad reputation. However, though the premise may seem simple, the characters, actions, and motivations behind their actions are not. The style of writing and topic make it a quality story about forgiveness and growing up.

In high school, perhaps more than anywhere else, a bad reputation can stick with you forever. This tender, touching and very realistic novel about teen sex and its aftermath will -- like it's main character's bad reputation -- stick for you for a long time after you read it!

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

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.

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 goes unmatched. Even three years later, she's still met with so many sneers and snide comments. Her father won't so much as look at her in the eye.

We are taken into Deanna's story during summer before her junior year. This is the summer where she begins making discoveries about herself, her friends and her family. She grows exponentially and finally comes to terms with the fact she cannot let others define her by something so deep into the past. It's the summer she gains hard-earned internal strength, tests her friendships, and stretches the boundaries with her family. I'm proud of how Deanna concludes her story and how she handled everything. It was about time.

In all, Story of a Girl is a dazzling debut from Sara Zarr. I'll definitely read Sweethearts.

Parents are always handing their kids books they think would be good for them. Here's one that the kids ought to hand their parents. It looks like it's about sex, but it's really about forgiveness. As Deanna says, "we all have stuff we wish we could change." This is a very different kind of family story. Here, very real people deal with the very real consequences of their actions. The voice of Deanna Lambert is so clear and true you can't help but love her. You want to scream "No Deanna! Don't!" when she seems headed toward yet another Big Mistake. You feel her drowning. You struggle for air as she fights her way to the surface. You take a huge breath in relief as she kicks herself free of the whirlpool and heads out toward the rest of her life with stronger surer strokes. Read it!
Janet Gingold
author of Finch Goes Wild

In a lot of teen books, the writers work hard to use casual teen language and create realistic teen characters. Their teenagers swear, scream, and listen to the right bands.

Thank goodness Sara Zarr DID NOT do this. Instead, she has absolutely real characters. Zarr doesn't try to insert "teenism" by randomly sticking in swear words or scenes. She doesn't try to mimic teenage behavior. She doesn't have to. Every character (yes, EVERY one, including the adults) is absolutely believable and true. Characterization and dialogue here is really great, making this read enjoyable and realistic as well. When teens swear, it's in the right places. Their phrases are dead-on ("when the [...] hits the fan"). They're complex characters, deep, and absolutely breathe.

The plot works as well. It really is, in that sense though, just a story of a girl, Deanna. We follow her life, feel her emotions, and get teary-eyed as she does. The plot moves at a believable pace (a summer vacation, after all), with developments going along at reasonable speeds. The story will at times make a reader cry (mostly the second half) and will certainly give a sort of vague food-for-thought.

The thing is, it's just a really good book. "Story of a Girl" is written really well. It's got that interesting, believable plot, those absolutely realistic characters, and dialogue and actions that match up to characters. It's well-spaced, balanced, and whole. It gives a nice ending that offers hope, brings us into an important world, and does it all extremely well.

Highly recommended.

Deanna is caught having sex with Tommy when she is thirteen. It's her dad that catches her, and after that things change. Tommy tells the whole school, and so she's always known just for being slutty, even though Tommy was the first and only guy she'd ever done anything with. Her dad has never been able to look at her the same after what happened, and so her entire life is changed.



Now, a couple years later, Deanna wants things to change. She makes plans in her mind that include moving out with her older brother and his family, and she tries to remain secretive about her feelings for her best friend. In the meantime, Tommy and Deanna are working at the same pizza place.



This book was so powerful and amazing, I can definitely understand how it became so popular. It's amazing how deep it was, and how I could see into Deanna's emotions and understand exactly how she was feeling. I felt like the writing was amazing and all of the characters were realistic, including the minor characters. The story was beautifully written and while it was short, it still touched me in a new way. There really is no book like Story of a Girl.

I could not put this book down. It is a great book especially for anyone that has gone through a similar experience.

This novel is just what its title suggests: the story of a girl. It also happens to be the story of a girl who, at 13, gets caught by her father having sex in the back of some 17-year-old's car. He was the first and (still is) the only guy she'd even ever kissed, and now, three years later, she's still living down the label of town skank. And her father still hasn't been able to look her in the eye or have a real conversation with her. This story pulled me in from the very first page - I mean, who can't relate to having made a stupid mistake when you were a kid that somehow ends up defining you forever? Nothing particularly earth-shattering happens during the novel; we mainly follow Deanna around for a summer, bearing witness to her shaky family life, best friend who might almost be more than a friend, and new pizza parlor job where aforementioned only guy she's ever kissed also happens to be working. But there's much more to the story and the characters that can possibly be explained in a review, and this beautiful story, full of honesty and heart, is definitely worth a read.

Deanna Lambert is a girl who, a couple of years ago, made a choice that she regrets. This book is about the repercussions of that choice, as well as finding out what it means to forgive and to be forgiven, and how many different ways two people can come to an understanding. The characters in this book are memorable, in that they're in situations that will resonate with anyone whose teenage experience wasn't all smiles and pop music.

The thing that makes this book unique is the fact that it's simply a slice of Deanna's life. There is no definite resolution to any of her problems, and the ending implies that her story will go on, even though we most likely won't have a chance to read any more of it. Don't get me wrong; each plot line (there are about five or six individual story arcs weaving together within this novel's one hundred and ninety-two pages) comes to a satisfying conclusion. It's just that the conclusions aren't the neat 'happily ever after' kind or the 'everything-comes-crashing-down' kind either. The books ends on a note that this girl's story isn't over, but the slice of it that we had the privilege to read has come to an end.

It's a little book with a seemingly simple story with complex undertones and themes of forgiveness, friendship, trust, loss, and moving on. Deanna will surely steal your heart with her hopeful and at times desperate tale that will resonate with any young adult and will remind the adult readers how wonderful, hard, and scary being a teenager is.

9/10