Reviewer: Lori Graham
Title: Absolutely Maybe
Author: Lisa Yee
Publisher: Arthur Levine Books/Scholastic Inc.
ISBN-13: 978-0-439-83844-3
Release Date: February 2009
Genre/Sub-genre: YA
Publisher’s Age/Grade Recommendation: 12 and up
OUAR’s Age/Grade Recommendation: 14 and up
Year/Setting: Current/Florida and California
Overall rating: 4.0
Sexual Content Rating: Subtle (one attempted rape scene)
Language (Profanity) Content Rating: None
Violent Content Rating: Mild (one attempted rape scene)
Lisa's Website: www.lisayee.com
With a name like Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut, any teenage girl would struggle a bit. (The names come from her mother’s favorite mascara and two Miss America winners.) Now take that same teenage girl and have her living with her mother, Chessamay Chestnut Abajian Wing Marshall Wing Sinclair Alvarez (soon-to-be Himmler), and you know she struggles a bit. Going by the name Maybe seems to fit her life.
Her mom has one husband after another and loves getting married. Part of that could be from a lifetime of pageants—both as a participant and as a business owner specializing in helping teenager girls become pageant winners. Part of it could be that her mother is as lost as she is.
Because she can’t find the stability at home that she would like, Maybe turns to her two friends—Daniel, aka Hollywood, who is getting ready to head to college for film making and Ted, whose family has embraced Maybe and all of her odd hair colors.
Finally, things at home get to be too much when the soon-to-be husband tries to rape Maybe and her mother doesn’t believe her. Maybe can’t take anymore and since Hollywood is heading to California to go to USC, she offers to go along and even talks Ted into joining them. She is determined to find the one man her mother didn’t marry—her father!
Lisa Yee pulls the reader into Maybe’s mind with the first page. The feelings Maybe is going through are very real and sometimes rather raw. There is a lot of turmoil for this one young woman to go through but thankfully Ted and Hollywood provide some joy for her. These secondary characters really liven up the plot line and mix a lot of humor in with a lot of reality.
The chapter structure was an interesting mix of longer chapters and one paragraph chapters. While this kept the story moving very quickly, it also made it a bit rocky in some places. Maybe was a really cute name for the character but there were times I had to re-read a sentence because I forgot it was her name. A teen mind would probably pick up quicker on that. J As an adult, the rape scene was one that I struggled with a bit. I didn’t struggle with the fact that it happened but that it wasn’t ever really dealt with. This poor girl was driven from her home and her mother didn’t believe her. I don’t want to give away the ending but I just really felt there should have been more done with that. Because of that I did raise the age a bit from what the publisher recommended.
All in all, it was a well done manuscript and one I would recommend to my own teenage daughter.
Lori
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