Harley's Ninth (review)

Having discovered the true identity of her real father in Harley Like a Person (BCCB 5/00), Harley is now living with her dad in New York, pursuing her dream of being an artist and preparing to open her first exhibit in a posh gallery. The entire novel takes place on the day of the exhibit, and it is simply crammed with more of the melodramatic coincidences that characterized the earlier novel. As the day progresses, she and Sean, her father, who hasn't been back to her hometown of Lenape Lakes for fourteen years, go there together, and drama piles on top of drama. They run into Carla, Harley's ex-best friend, whose biological father is also Sean, and there is a tense confrontation. Another confrontation ensues when Harley stops by her home to get a dress for the exhibit, and her abusive stepfather decides to drag up Sean's history with Harley's mother; then Harley finds out that the old woman she always considered her fairy godmother is really her grandmother. All the while, Harley is worried that her family history of early pregnancy may be repeating itself: she's five days late for her period. Readers of the first book will be interested and satisfied to see loose ends tied up here, but the decision to set the entire book in a single day makes the unfolding of coincidences and confrontations feel contrived. Nevertheless, Harley's blend of intense artistic longing and pouty teenage angst rings as true as it did in the first book; readers who want nothing but the best for Harley will be tickled pink as wave after wave of good fortune and positive closure wash over her.