Trouble: A memoir

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JAY. Where to even start. Not only did he not support her pregnancy but he slept with his stepsister when SHE WAS ONLY 15!!! That's like double illegal, dude. I know he's written that way on purpose but I can't stand the guy

His best went on an exchange program to France and cheated on his girlfriend, Penny, Aaron's best friend. He was defending her and they got into a fight and Chris got in the way of a car. It’s super meaningful, and has so many brilliant messages for you to take away. There’s some pretty heavy themes in the second half of the book, but they were dealt with so well, and the book was still kept light and enjoyable. These dark feelings a character had were really important, and weren’t glorified in any way. It was real, dark, yet uplifting because of how well they were dealt with. What I loved most though was that Pratt isn’t preachy in telling her story. She doesn’t use this opportunity to present a cautionary tale to scare young girls into not having sex. Hannah isn’t shamed by her peers for having sex or even for getting pregnant and that’s something to commend. There are horror stories that involve werewolves, vampires, and other monsters of myth and fantasy, creatures that crawl out of overwrought imaginations and nighttime fears. And then there are the horror stories that involve the ordinary, everyday ways that human beings treat and mistreat one another. The first type can be fun, if you have a taste for that sort of thing. The second, especially in the hands of a master, is simply horrific; the kind of thing that, while you are reading it or thinking about it, makes it hard to breathe, or swallow, or see clearly through unshed tears.I was most definitely not a fan of Jay, who is Hannah’s stepbrother and who turns out to be the father of her baby. The age of consent in the UK is sixteen and Hannah was fifteen when they had sex, so technically that makes him a rapist, but this fact was completely skated over. So was the fact that he’s Hannah’s stepbrother. That just sat all wrong for me and I found the sex scene with him and Hannah a bit grim. I was making faces, and not good ones, and the fact that Hannah was completely in love with him made me like her even less. There was no character development. None. While both characters issues are eventually brought to the surface, we never see them learn from them or behave differently than they did before. Plus, once all their baggage is out in the open the reader never sees the consequence of that. I wanted to see Aaron come to terms with his friends’ death and maybe make amends with Penny. I wanted to see the shit hit the fan at Hannah’s house when her family found out who the father really was. But nada. The revelation is all we get. There’s no question Schmidt writes from a wealth of life experience. When he writes about lawyers, he knows about lawyers. When he writes about snobby prep schools, he knows about snobby prep schools. I could go on and on. Schmidt is strong in pretty much all phases of the game as he weaves a memorable tale of forgiveness and redemption.

On the sex positivity, it's not only teenagers who are sexual, sexually active, or horny and anything. There are extremely awesome elderly characters who are friends, and confidants, and still allowed to be sexual, to have pasts which aren't romanticised, and be interested in now, and not be examples of 'in my day,' as a contrast with modern sexual or social mores being pulled into play by grandparental figures. Sex was sex in the past, as it is now, and teenagers do it.

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It was weird about consent. The line about ‘no-one can make me do anything. Least of all that’ fell squarely into victim-blaming territory. It was weird about promiscuity. It was sometimes ok for people to badmouth it and other times it wasn’t. Then we find out that Jay was the first guy Hannah slept with it and there was only what, two, others after. So she wasn’t actually that fond of sleeping around? And somehow that changed how people saw her situation? Idk it was weird. The last part was directed not at Henry but at the dog, who had come to sniff Henry's father to see if he might be at all interesting.

Hannah has made some mistakes but she's he first character i've ever read in a Ya novel who talks about periods, being horny and the fact that she really likes sex. It’s emotional af, but in a good way. There were sad points (yes, I did well up in the school library. I was having a tough day, ok?! *sniffs*), but there were also times when this book was so uplifting. I loved how happy it made me feel (the ending... it was perfect!). SO MANY FEELS HERE. It was sad and happy all at once, but overall, it was light-hearted (even if it dealt with some really hard topics), and such an enjoyable read.

It’s feminist. If you’ve read this, you might be thinking: “What on Earth is she talking about?!”, but hear me out. It doesn't explicitly deal with gender politics. But I found that the way this dealt with issues like slut-shaming, and misogyny in sex, really opened my eyes (and will do to so many other people). Let me explain further: Gary Schmidt is probably my favorite children's writer after the venerable Katherine Paterson. I love both of them as phenomenal people, and admire them both madly as writers. So that's a disclaimer of sorts. That said--I didn't love TROUBLE as much as LIZZIE BRIGHT, and I didn't work on this book, so don't have quite the affection for it that I do for THE WEDNESDAY WARS. And I do see a few wee little problems in the narrative. BUT, they hardly matter b/c I think the heart of this book rises far above the narrative itself.