Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian
Release Date: September 1, 2010
Publisher: Push
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 304
Source: Publisher (requested for review)
Interest: Summary
Challenge: None
Buy the Book: Amazon
Natalie Sterling wants to be in control. She wants her friends to be loyal. She wants her classmates to elect her student council president. She wants to find the right guy, not the usual jerk her school has to offer. She wants a good reputation, because she believes that will lead to good things.
But life is messy, and it's very hard to be in control of it. Not when there are freshman girls running around in a pack, trying to get senior guys to sleep with them. Not when your friends have secrets they're no longer comfortable sharing. Not when the boy you once dismissed ends up being the boy you wants to sleep with yourself - but only in secret, with nobody ever finding out.
Slut or saint? Winner or loser? Natalie is getting tired of these forced choices - and is now going to find a way to live life in the sometimes messy, sometimes wonderful in-between.
Summary by Amazon.com
You're either 'that kind of girl' or your not... right?
What a fantastic novel. I've been reading some exceptionally well written and meaningful novels lately and Not That Kind of Girl is one of them. Vivian has made a fan out of me! Looking forward to her future titles and may have to get her two previous titles to devour as well.
Struggling with who you are... and how you want people to see you, is something that I don't ever think you grow out of. I know I still struggle with it as an adult and I couldn't help remembering how much more I struggled with that in high school just like Natalie did. I envied her, I hated her... I pitied her.
She was such a remarkably well written character, and unlike any character I've read about in YA. She's obviously intelligent... she's stubborn and opinionated without being annoying. I couldn't decide if I loved her or if I hated her. Somewhere along the course of the novel I pitied her and in the end, I loved her. Despite her air of control and perfection... you know that Natalie has a few lessons to learn.
And Spencer was the perfect ying to Natalie's yang. Their way of thinking may be totally different (pertaining to how a young woman should act and be), but it's hard to say if one girl is more correct than the other. It was an interesting take on two different versions of feminism.
I can't fail to mention my favorite aspect of any novel... there may be a little love story that develops as well. A realistically portrayed relationship!
Great characterization... awesome plot.. sensational writing! This is one simply fantastic contemporary novel. Can't wait for more!