Okay, last night I was going to try and do a triple post, but I got distracted. So I'm going to talk about Vegan Virgin Valentine today.

It's Carolyn Mackler's new book, and its about a girl named Mara Valentine. Mara is a total overachiever. Really, she's totally crazy. Part of her compulsion to do well comes from parental expectations. Her much older sister dropped out of college and hasn't really done anything since. Except give birth to V, Mara's niece. When Mara's sister decides to take off for Costa Rica (something about having always wanted to be a Carribean cuisine chef), V comes to live with Mara and her parents. V is the opposite of Mara: she smokes, she's not a virgin, and she could care less about school. So the book is basically Mara's senior year and how she changes, thanks to V and a few other influences.

Although I enjoyed the book, especially Mara (who is often hilarious, but not on purpose), this was no The Earth, my Butt, and other Big, Round Things. To be honest, I kind of feel like the book should have been longer. Mara's relationship with her father wasn't handled with enough depth, and V as a character just didn't seem developed enough, like maybe she needed to do some narrating herself.

That being said, I still enjoyed the book immensely, and would recommend it to anyone who likes teenage girl fiction with a brain.

Vegan Virgin Valentin by Carolyn Mackler
ISBN 0763621552
240 pages