I had seen this book on display at my libarary, and then saw some okay reviews for it on goodreads.com, so I went ahead and checked it out the next time I went. I read it in a couple afternoons - it's a quick read, and also a "just okay" read.
"Jesse cuts her own hair with a Swiss Army knife. She wears big green fisherman's boots. She's the founding (and only) member of NOLAW, the National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos. Emily wears sweaters with faux pearl buttons. She's vice president of the student council. She has a boyfriend.
These two girls have nothing in common, except the passionate "private time" they share every Tuesday afternoon. Jesse wishes their relationship could be out in the open, but Emily feels she has too much to lose. When they find themselves on opposite sides of a heated school conflict, they each have to decide what's more important: what you believe in, or the one you love?" [taken from goodreads.com]
To be completely honest, I've never read a "LGBT" book before, as this is labeled. But seriously, I don't think we need to label it as a "gay" book or whatever, it's really just a (sort of) romance. Because really, I woudn't label what Jesse and Emily have as "love."
The book is written from three perspectives: Jesse's, Emily's, and also from the POV of another girl named Esther. It's a little bit weird, as Jesse's chapters are written in third person, Emily's are written in first, and Esther's are written in first as well, but she only has two chapters in the entire book, and they're both very short. I don't exactly know why George decided to give her two awkwardly placed chapters to herself, especially when everything she said could have easily been told through dialogue with Jesse and sort of was later on anyway. So that kind of confused me. Also, I was shocked when I saw that Emily's chapter was written in first person when Jesse's was written in third, but I think I see why the author did it - because there was no other possible way to get the readers to understand what was going on in Emily's messed up head. More on that in a second.
As the summary says, Jesse and Emily have some "private time" every Thursday afternoon, or in other words, making out in the library bathroom. Jesse's out and proud, rebellious (or at least she thinks she is) and one of her closest friends is Wyatt, a gay boy who no longer goes to her school, who proved to be one of my favorite characters. I really liked Jesse, and I loved how big of a role her parents played in the story. DPS (disappearing parent syndrome) is one of the worst things that can happen in a YA novel. As a teen, our parents play a pretty big role in our lives, whether we like it or not. So I'm glad George didn't neglect that.
On the other hand, Emily is "in the closet," bisexual, popular, pretty, wears J. Crew and all that, and has so much school spirit that I kind of wanted to puke. I could not stand her. Ugh. I could tolerate her at the beginning, but at the end I just hated her. When the big "controversy" develops, I hated where she stood, and I hated how she tried to get her way. She was ignorant, self-absorbed, and kept using the "Just do this for me" card, like nobody else in the freaking world mattered. And I hated the way she thought of Jesse. She thinks that Jesse's boots are hideous and wishes she would get rid of them, and she hates talking to Jesse because she actually has opinions that haven't been forced into her head by megacorporations. Yet, she thinks that she and Jesse are "soul mates" because something just clicks when they make out. But... well... isn't that just hormones? I hate to say it, but if that is the proving factor for your relationship when you can't even speak to each other, that relationship is going down the drain.
And now, the big controversy. Emily has brought a big corporation into the school to sponsor the dance. She's even working as an intern for them. Jesse, on the other hand, has teamed up with Esther to fight the corporation because of the way they'll shut down all local stores, have children work in sweatshops, and lots of other bad things, etc etc. I totally sided with Jesse and Esther. Emily refused to believe this, and I won't give away all the details, but I was ready to kill her.
The ending was cute, I guess. I was content with it. It wasn't anything spectacular, but more of a "well, let's get it over with" kind of thing. There were some things said at the end that I think really shouldn't have been said, dealing with the whole "love" aspect, as I think Jesse and Emily weren't really in love at all. But for a coming of age story and all that, I guess it was reasonable.
If you want a quick read, I'd recommend this. I didn't not like it, but I didn't love it either.
