Morgan lives in Central Nowhere, Nebraska, where people are “all about family values…but that’s only as long as your family and your values are just like everyone else’s.”** She’s dating a dumb-but-kind football player who bores her, she lusts after an older guy who works at the grocery store with her, and she’s a little nervous about the fact that her neighbor, Tessa, kissed her and she liked it. Add to this an alcohol father, a dead mother, a timid stepmother, and a grandmother who’s the only person Morgan can relate to but who also has a very big secret, and Morgan’s life just keeps spiraling downward. She writes her own fortune cookie messages on the backs of post-it notes to keep her sanity while dealing with everything going on around her, and pines to get away from Central Nowhere.

I was very lucky to get a hold of this book. When I read Kristin’s review back in May, this book went immediately to my to-read list and I’ve itched for it ever since. When I saw it at the Llewellyn booth at ALA, I was so excited, and then I was told they no longer had any copies of it except the display. Because I wanted it so much, one of the men there promised the display copy to me if I came back late Monday. I did, and he did. So lucky! I publicly thank both guys who manned the booth for their generosity!

I read the book on the way back to San Antonio. It didn’t disappoint. It’s interesting, because Morgan has a distinct 16-yr-old voice, and gabbled some pretty inane things – however, when it all comes out, she said very important things through the gabbling. Of course, the book addresses some issues that are very important to me. One of the major themes is how homosexuals (and other people who are different) are treated in backwoods areas. This tiny, conservative town is nasty towards Tessa and everyone else they think is gay. One character I really liked a lot went the whole book as a good person, until popping out with, “That’s just wrong. … It’s sick…against nature.”** Oh, I hated that character after that, especially when he claimed “having an open mind meant” accepting that he couldn’t accept homosexuality. Yes, openmindedness definitely means accepting discrimination without question…grr.

The other thing that really struck me about this book was Morgan’s struggle with her own sexuality. She really enjoyed kissing Tessa, but doesn’t have any desire to repeat the experience. She really does lust after guys. No one knows Tessa kissed her, but because Tessa has an obvious crush on her, they assume Morgan’s a lesbian, too, and she’s harassed at school. She begins to question her sexuality, and has to come to realize that it’s attraction that determines sexuality, not actions. I love that message. There are plenty of gay people in the world in straight marriages, having kids, denying their sexuality. There are probably straight people in gay relationships doing the same thing, though probably not as often. It really bothers me when people think sexuality is determined by action, because it’s not. It’s determined by attraction, a very intangible thing that can’t be controlled.

I don’t want to give the impression that the book is entirely about sexuality. I actually expected there to be more of that from the descriptions I read, but probably only a third of the book focused on that. There were many other focuses, but that’s the thing that stood out to me, personally, the most.

**Note: These quotes are from an Uncorrected Advanced Proof, and don’t necessarily reflect what the final quotes will be. Reading a UAP was an interesting experience. There were copyediting errors that will be corrected before the final printing, and in one part there were even instructions about how to handle a specific section in the final copy! I loved that! Since I’m trying to publish my own book, it was an interesting insight into the publishing process. I do think I’ll get a final-version copy when it comes out, so I can reread it with all the changes and corrections. I’ll probably wait until it’s in paperback, though, since I like that better and am no longer in any sort of rush.