Forever...

"I was going to omit a rating, because I'm definitely not the target audience and I didn't want to unfairly affect its overall score. I thought maybe it just didn't age well, or something; but then I read a few reviews written by teenagers and now I feel better about my gut reaction: it's just bad. The main characters are slappable, the guy is gross, the parents are super-slappable, the dialogue is unbelievable. The supporting cast isn't terrible (I like Jamie), but honestly, <spoiler>the possibly-probably queer guy being suicidal and ending up in the psych ward</spoiler> isn't a narrative that needs to be encouraged or supported in this day and age. For that matter, <spoiler>the fat girl being promiscuous</spoiler> was also really gross and awful. It's way past time that these decades-old stereotypes were squashed."

"Given that I'm not by any means a member of this book's target audience, I was impressed to find that I enjoyed it. The book is <i>marketed</i> toward teenage girls but is <i>written</i> in a way that should make it enjoyable to just about anyone.<br/><br/>It's about high school seniors falling in love, struggling to make their parents understand, and eventually <spoiler>spending a summer apart and realizing that their relationship won't last forever. It deals with the topics of teen pregnancy, homosexuality, and birth control, approaching them from the standpoint of the curious teenager rather than that of an older person with a settled mindset.</spoiler><br/><br/>I would recommend it in particular to any teenager who is <br/>(a) thinking about <br/>(b) beginning<br/>(c) in<br/>or (d) ending <br/>a relationship...which is to say essentially any teenager."