Trouble: A memoir

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I just can’t get past how dumb and unrealistic they were. If I surveyed the parents of like a hundred 15 year old boys, how many of them would allow him to pretend to be the father of the child of another 15 he just met? Um, none. What if the kids father was a teacher in the high school they both attended? What if the boy was severely emotionally damaged and just vulnerable in general? Despite the obvious consequences of Hannah’s unplanned pregnancy, Trouble manages to be sex-positive. It is brutally honest when Hannah confides in us that she wants sex: “This last week or so has been UNbearable. I have never been so horny in all my life, and I think it might kill me if I don’t have sex soon.” More than that, however, this sex drive is by Hannah, for Hannah. Too frequently, women’s sexuality in media is an object of male desire—women are sexy for men, want sex for the benefit of a male viewpoint character. When Hannah refers to being “on the prowl” or “within perving distance” or otherwise discusses her body and her needs, she’s affirming that she wants sex for her own sake.

So many threads come together spectacularly in the last quarter of the book -- at this point the book really hits it's stride and the emotion and gut-punches are real and beautiful and balanced with ache and belonging and horror and hope. And the ending was just fantastic (although I could happily have gone on reading what happens next...)

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Now, I know that Hannah’s decisions and reactions are realistic, and that people do stuff like this in real life, but she’s definitely not smart. I did like Aaron and I felt really bad for the terrible things that had happened to him, but he didn’t really seem to develop either. And I didn’t really understand why he offered to pretend to be the father of Hannah’s baby. It is explained, but I still didn’t really buy into it. And I definitely didn’t understand why his parents went along with it! It’s super meaningful, and has so many brilliant messages for you to take away. There’s some pretty heavy themes in the second half of the book, but they were dealt with so well, and the book was still kept light and enjoyable. These dark feelings a character had were really important, and weren’t glorified in any way. It was real, dark, yet uplifting because of how well they were dealt with.

I bet your wondering why I didn’t rate it 5 stars if I loved the story so much. Well, that’s because of the ending. I loved how the story ended but just felt as though it needed more. It ended too soon after a major moment. I wanted to know what happened next. An epilogue would have been fantastic! I started reading “Trouble” to see if she’d like it and thought it was really well written. I’m not sure if YD books are allowed to get away with a more implausible plots than say an adult book, but overall, despite the unlikely coincidences that happen throughout the book, the plot kept my interest to the point where I read rather than do other things I should have been doing and finished it in under a week. (Yes, YD but I’m a slow reader.) Her best friend is slipping away from her, when she finds out, she's just pissed off becaause Hannah didn't tell her sooner and goes to Marcy, former teen model and school's queen B, who makes sure everybody know it via Facebook.

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You find with this book you don't really connect with characters but you hear the, you listen to them, you hear their story which makes this a beautifully written and emotional novel to experience. If you know of anything similar in genre of this book. Please let me know. I want to hear people's stories like these to witness their happy endings. A book that makes me cry shows how truly amazing this author is. I need more and I can't wait to read Remix. Something entirely different. There were a bunch of weird ideas about sex in this book. In places, it felt voyeuristic. The details were too much, imo, when it came to kids. Not the crass banter or the casual sex. Just the way the author handled it. It was very matter of fact about the fact that these people were all having sex, which I appreciated. But then there was slut-shaming aplenty and the underlying message that it was ok to say mean things about the people you don’t like. The chapter about Hannah’s pregnancy horniness was weird to read, considering we saw very little of her other pregnancy symptoms. And it was always the physical ones rather than the mental or emotional ones. Did we need to know how she felt? And for a book that took such a warts and all approach, there was no mention of masturbation which really was the ideal solution. How had his father guessed? 'Remember you were Cambodian before you were American.' And so he had taken his dog to teach him what he had to learn. He beat her. He made him watch. He starved her. He made him watch. 'Learn how to be strong,' he said. Then he took her away. 'She is drowned,' he said when he returned. 'Learn to be cold inside.' This book made me cry in a coffee shop. Who would have thought that would happen with me. Brilliant book. Full review to come. :) Henry Smith is a student at a college prep school whose parents are well-off. Because of his love for his son, Henry's father attempts to protect Henry from life, often spending money to that effect, but of course, this doesn't stop life from afflicting Henry. One day, Franklin, Henry's older brother, gets hit by a car and hospitalized. The novel's action begins when Franklin arises from his coma, looks Henry straight in the eyes, mutters a single word, "Katahdin," and then dies.