Something, Maybe

Author: Elizabeth Scott

Publisher: New York: Simon Pulse 2009
ISBN- 978-1-4169-7865-7
pages: 217
Author's website

Classification: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Chick Lit
Topics: Coming of Age, Romance, Contemporary life
Media Type: Book


Grade level: 9-up

Reader's annotation: After spending years trying to be invisible to everyone in school so as to avoid the comments about her parents and their swinging lifestyle, she now wants to be noticed by a certain boy.

Summary: Hannah is a very independent high school student, she has to be since she doesn’t feel she can really count on either of her parents. As the book opens she has, a mother she avoids when possible, an estranged celebrity father, a best girlfriend, two boys in her life, and an after school job taking drive-thru orders at the local burger joint. She works with these two boys, one whom is a friend and she is comfortable with, the other who is her crush and Mr. Mcdreamy. While her girlfriend is giving her advice on the next moves to make to further along a possible relationship, Hannah is dealing with her mother and her job talking to men while scantily dressed. Her mom’s big claim to fame is having been the girlfriend of a Hugh Hefner type person and Hannah is the result of this relationship. Her father is not someone she wants to have anything to do with, but he isn’t used to being told no. Unfortunately for Hannah she isn’t ready to say no strongly enough, but that changes when she is realizes what is really important to her, which helps her to define herself and gives her the courage to do what she really wants to do, not just sit back and watch. The story is somewhat predictable but would be enjoyable for many teen girls.

Evaluation: I found this book to be somewhat empty in the first half, though the second half became more interesting. The conversations and characters seemed to be so shallow they didn’t really hold my interest. The book was a quick read and just as quickly forgotten, the characters not really sticking in my memory. A good book for the beach maybe or for a stress release but not something that you can really sink your teeth into.