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The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
During the summer before senior year, lifelong best friends Nina, Avery, and Mel split up for the summer. Nina attends a program at Stanford and falls head over heels in love with a cute, together hippie from Oregon and Mel and Nina end up dating. In case there is confusion, Mel is female, and that aspect is what got me to pick up the book. (Also, all this is from the back cover.)
Now, I loved 90% of this book.
Avery's confusion about what the hell is going on in her life and her feeling suffocated by Mel, who knows exactly what she wants ("What does a lesbian bring to the first date? A U-haul") is perfect.
Johnson also does a great job of showing how Nina's family higher income and get in the way of her friendship without getting preachy or obvious.
Also, while I am leery about OMG this is true love forever even though we've known each other for six weeks (Nina and her boy Steve) when Mel and Avery were going hot and heavy and Nina was kind of cut out of the friendship (which is why I personally don't like threesomes because in group friendships I am always that girl who no one likes as much and I always believe that adding sex to that will just acerbate the problem) the end made me cringe.
Now, both Avery and Steve end up cheating on their significant other. Avery because she felt trapped and unsure and Steve because it was too hard being in a long-distance relationship.
Both of them get forgiven.
There's the thing, though: Avery was a life-long friend. You forgive life-long friends of shit you don't tolerate from other people because by that time the have had your back before and life without them sucks. Six week boyfriend? Nothing doing.
ESPECIALLY because when Nina was talking about why she was going back to Steve (and why she wasn't going to date Parker, who is cute, there, and was totally a rock when both Mel and Nina were going through a hard time and was all-around great boyfriend material), she was listing all his external attributes, like how dedicated he was to saving the planet and how hard his homelife was. I'm sorry, but that is not how you pick a boyfriend. You are not a prize how goes to whichever boy is the most deserving.
The resolution turned this book into a whole 'forgiveness is good' (and actually, I think this author is going there in another book I'm reading, too) message that drove me crazy.
Sometimes forgiveness is good. When your best friend screws up and knows it (and you don't start dating her again) for example. When a guy can't manage to call you or write you regularly and then gets a replacement you because long-distance relationships are hard, that is when you say, 'sorry, you're through'.
During the summer before senior year, lifelong best friends Nina, Avery, and Mel split up for the summer. Nina attends a program at Stanford and falls head over heels in love with a cute, together hippie from Oregon and Mel and Nina end up dating. In case there is confusion, Mel is female, and that aspect is what got me to pick up the book. (Also, all this is from the back cover.)
Now, I loved 90% of this book.
Avery's confusion about what the hell is going on in her life and her feeling suffocated by Mel, who knows exactly what she wants ("What does a lesbian bring to the first date? A U-haul") is perfect.
Johnson also does a great job of showing how Nina's family higher income and get in the way of her friendship without getting preachy or obvious.
Also, while I am leery about OMG this is true love forever even though we've known each other for six weeks (Nina and her boy Steve) when Mel and Avery were going hot and heavy and Nina was kind of cut out of the friendship (which is why I personally don't like threesomes because in group friendships I am always that girl who no one likes as much and I always believe that adding sex to that will just acerbate the problem) the end made me cringe.
Now, both Avery and Steve end up cheating on their significant other. Avery because she felt trapped and unsure and Steve because it was too hard being in a long-distance relationship.
Both of them get forgiven.
There's the thing, though: Avery was a life-long friend. You forgive life-long friends of shit you don't tolerate from other people because by that time the have had your back before and life without them sucks. Six week boyfriend? Nothing doing.
ESPECIALLY because when Nina was talking about why she was going back to Steve (and why she wasn't going to date Parker, who is cute, there, and was totally a rock when both Mel and Nina were going through a hard time and was all-around great boyfriend material), she was listing all his external attributes, like how dedicated he was to saving the planet and how hard his homelife was. I'm sorry, but that is not how you pick a boyfriend. You are not a prize how goes to whichever boy is the most deserving.
The resolution turned this book into a whole 'forgiveness is good' (and actually, I think this author is going there in another book I'm reading, too) message that drove me crazy.
Sometimes forgiveness is good. When your best friend screws up and knows it (and you don't start dating her again) for example. When a guy can't manage to call you or write you regularly and then gets a replacement you because long-distance relationships are hard, that is when you say, 'sorry, you're through'.
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I'll be sure to keep an eye out, now, see if I do.
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I had librarians like her.