Oh, dear Virginia. I just want to give you a hug. Because we've all been there. We've all felt, at some point, excluded. The odd fish out. The color blue, unable to be gathered. That Jigsaw piece that somehow got chipped, and no matter how hard you mash it, just won't click.But Virginia feels like that all the time. She's part of a dark-haired, stick-thin, beautiful family. But she's blonde. And not so stickish. Her sister, Anais, is a rail-thin "goddess" working for Peace Corps, her brother an athletic "Greek God" at a local college. Their mom goes to the gym every day between sessions with troubled teens, and her dad can't stop praising the glories of a thin-figured woman. And in such a perfect family, all eyes are on Virginia to pick up the pace. But when things start getting less perfect, Virginia beings to reevaluate who she is and what she wants.
This book, in my opinion, deserved it's Printz sticker. I didn't immediately get into it, but after the first few chapters, I began to understand the love. Virginia's family is so physically perfect, but internally fractured. And, when there's a problem, no one talks about it. The big irony is the fact that the mother sits down with teens every day, as a psychiatrist, to work out their problems. But it's a lot different when the problems you're trying to work out are your own. Their family wasn't a "bad" family - it was a normal one. With problems. Like a normal family will always have. (Stepfords excluded.)
What I really liked about this was that it can't be given a specific category or genre. It wasn't solely about "family" or "weight" or "relationships". It melded them all together, which is how life truly is. It was a book about Virginia, a real teen girl, going through a real teen life. And damn, does she have a lot to say.
This is our February book club pick, so I'm not going to go into too much more detail until our chat date (for those of you who are members). But it was good. Very good.
