Book Review: Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

 
Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publish Date: October 5, 2010

Hardcover, 368 pages
Young Adult

My Review:
Why I read this:  The title drew me in.  Why are they Mostly Good Girls, plus I loved the cover.

How is the novel driven:  Character, this is all about Violet and her best friend Katie and their friendship and navigating the difficult waters of high school.


My thoughts: I say it often I know, but I loved this book.  I could completely relate to this book.  I saw it well from Violet's point-of-view.  She wants, like Katie to be different and to be noticed and not the ordinary good girl, but in truth she doesn't want to change.  Katie however starts to change and therefore their friendship starts to change.

How many girls in high school have been through this - it's such a tumultuous time and add to it friend problems and it just magnifies everything.  What girl isn't trying to find herself and respect herself just like Violet?  What girl isn't experimenting with things that aren't acceptable to their parents?   How many just want some attention?  I think this book addresses all of this is a wonderful entertaining way.  I found myself laughing a lot through the book.  Vi and Katie are very interesting together and as they try out ways to become not-so-good girls, it's amusing.  I  love the humor and the sarcasm through the book - it sounds very much like the way teenagers truly are.

Wonderfully written, highly entertaining and meaningful.  Ms. Sales pulls off a wonderful book with Mostly Good Girls and I look forward to more of her books.


My Rating: 4.75/5.0

About the Book:
The higher you aim, the farther you fall….

It’s Violet’s junior year at the Westfield School. She thought she’d be focusing on getting straight As, editing the lit mag, and figuring out how to talk to boys without choking on her own saliva. Instead, she’s just trying to hold it together in the face of cutthroat academics, her crush’s new girlfriend, and the sense that things are going irreversibly wrong with her best friend, Katie.

When Katie starts making choices that Violet can’t even begin to fathom, Violet has no idea how to set things right between them. Westfield girls are trained for success—but how can Violet keep her junior year from being one huge epic failure?

About the Author:
Leila Sales grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from the University of Chicago. Now she lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works in the mostly glamorous world of children’s book publishing. Leila spends her time thinking about sleeping, kittens, dance parties, and stories that she wants to write. Mostly Good Girls is her first novel.

Her Website


FTC Information: I received this book through Traveling ARC Tours for review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.

My Banned Books Week Post

Note:  It has come to my attention in the comments that this may come across as only Christian parents should monitor their children's reading material.  That is not what I meant at all - I believe all of society has an obligation to monitor their child's reading material, regardless of sex, religion, race or whether you are from Earth, Jupiter or the moon, vampire, werewolf, shape changer, hot viking vampire, whatever.  I only brought up my Christianity to show not all Christians are people who want to ban books.  Thank you to the people who commented and brought this to my attention.  I hope I do not come off high and mighty because that is not how I mean to come off. 
Back to the post now:

Wow - it seems this year that Banned Books Week has really created a ton of posts and lots of bloggers and authors speaking out.  What is amazing is I think all of the posts and tweets I have read have been civil, well-thought out and not condescending at all.  I think bloggers and authors and others have shared their point of view in a wonderful manner and a way that is not offensive to anyone and that is amazing with a controversial subject like banning books.  If we as a people could work out other differences this civilly I think a lot more could get done in this country, but that is another topic and not one for my book blog.

So my thoughts on banning books - I am completely against it.  I made a post last week about a choice of they banned books, a book that I have read (or a series in this case) which was the Gossip Girl series.

First off I would like to state I am a Christian, and I do stand behind my belief in God and in moral decisions.  That being said I still feel it is the right of the parent to help a child or young adult choose books to read, not the government, a church group or any other group, or individual.  I say what my children read, not the school board or some bored member of society with nothing better to do.  I think you would find most Christians share this view, we are not the enemy nor do I feel we are being made the enemy in this fight.  This fight is against individuals who believe they have more rights over what my children read than I do.  Do I keep tabs on what my children read.  Yes I do and I will continue to.  But I will also continue to nurture their love or reading and what I limit will only be because I believe it could be harmful to my child at the age they are at.  I actually have been trying to find more boy-type young adult books so I can steer my oldest son to great books for discussion between us.  Will I let him read books that have drinking in them?  I am sure I will when he gets a little older and I hope to discuss the right and wrong in the book.  I feel most young adult books are out to make a point and the point does lead to right.

Let's go with Freefall by Mindi Scott as an example.  The protagonist in this book is in an extreme downward spiral as the book starts.  There is drinking and drug use and possible promiscuous behavior.  But as the book progresses, the protagonist tries to turn his life around and the whole time he knows what he is doing is wrong, but he can't seem to stop it.  I don't believe this book is promoting drinking or drugs in the least.  It is showing a side of teenage life that most parents know is out there but don't want to believe their child would fall into.  I say if this book interests my son I would encourage him to read it and let us talk about it.  I think through that dialog I can help him grow and mature and that this book would be a help.

I don't have daughters, but if I did I am sure Speak would make the list of books for them to read if they were interested and for them to discuss with me if they would like.  I think these books are out for a reason, the author believed in sharing a difficult subject to let teens know they are not alone and there are ways to deal with things and people to talk to.  What is wrong with that?

So to sum up a post I know I have rambled on in, I am Christian and believe that book banning is wrong.  Once upon a time we were a society where the parents cared about their children and stayed more in tune with them.  Now I think we as a society have become less in tune with our children and therefore others feel like they need to step in.  Let's take our rights back, know what your children are reading, talk to them about it.  Don't feel the need to ban books, read, become aware and talk.  I think this is the key to raising the future leaders of tomorrow.  Not letting others tell them what they can and can't read.

Off my soapbox now.  Am I over the top?  Do you agree, do you disagree, do you think I'm a bad Christian, do you think I'm right on?  Tell me how you feel - I'm interested.  And if you have any great YA books about boys to recommend, please do.  I have a few more years, my oldest is only 9, but he is already reading books above his grade level and more interested in longer chapter books.