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Reviewed by:
  • Grit by Gillian French
  • Kate Quealy-Gainer
French, Gillian Grit. HarperTeen/HarperCollins, 2017 [304p]
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-264255-4 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-264257-8 $9.99
Reviewed from galleys         R Gr. 9-12

Seventeen-year-old Darcy works hard raking blueberries at the local farm during the week, parties even harder on the weekends in her small working class town, and fiercely protects her sensitive cousin Nell from those that would deem her "slow" or incapable. Darcy's tough enough to not let the rumors that she's an easy lay get to her, but a secret that she's keeping for Nell is becoming more and more tangled up with Darcy's own dark memories, and the burden is quickly driving her to further reckless behavior and self destruction. French paints a realistic picture of a town down on its luck, with little opportunity to offer its young people, and the unspoken desperation that lies under Darcy's behavior is undoubtedly linked to her desire to escape a place she sees as inescapable. Darcy narrates with her cards close to her chest, revealing her past in fits and starts. Her love for Nell comes through loud and clear, but her feelings for anyone else are murky at best; her crush on Jesse, for example, is complicated, and rightfully so, by his friendship with Shea, the boy [End Page 410] who sexually assaulted her last summer. The connection between a missing girl and Nell's romantic involvement with a teacher is a little bit shaky in its development, but it underlines the idea that the odds are stacked mighty high against teen girls trying to find agency in their sexual experiences. Much like Summer's All the Rage (BCCB 7/15) and Smith's The Way I Used to Be (BCCB 4/16), this explores the damage of a culture that sees women only in regards to their sexual history and not who they are.

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