Movie Review: The Prince

Title: The Prince
Release Date: 2014
Genre: action, thriller
My Rating: ***
Official Rating: R for violence, drug content, and language
Age Group: 18+
Summary
Paul is just a simple mechanic who loves his daughter very dearly. When Beth goes missing from college, instead of calling the police (since they will claim she is just a runaway teen), he sets off to find her himself. The road leads him back to his past where he must face the horrible reality of what he had done. Old enemies raise their heads and threaten to kill Paul's daughter, and Paul is only human.
Or is he?
The Romans tried to conquer Scotland but discovered a people so crazed they built a wall and let the Scottish live their lives unhindered. The people of a city down south saw Paul as a Scot, a wild one it would be a bad idea to fight, and called him the Prince.
Or so they say.

Word of Warning
I did not keep a list for this one since I did not plan on doing a review. Since this is an R rated movie, the list would have been too extensive anyway and I would have summerized, so I suppose this was a good movie to forget to take notes on. Interestingly enough, the official rating hits on the problems of this movie, just not with much detail.

• Violence. There is a lot of violence, though hardly any of it is graphic. A scene in which a woman and her daughter are in a car which blows up is shown multiple times. People are shot and die, some more dramatically than others. There are one or two car crashes. A lot of people die senselessly. A man is shot (not seriously) and stitches up his own wound while the camera watches closely. A man retells a story in which he had a gun to his head and nearly died, but did not. He later finds out the only thing that saved him in this theater shooting was the assassin running out of amo.
• Drugs. The whole movie centers around a girl who gets into drugs and a father who goes to save her. We see the girl rarely, but drugs are mentioned often and are never glorified by the good characters (and, interestingly enough, even the bad). The climax involves a man going into a house full of people who are taking drugs. Many of them are high. Beth is also shown on drugs and looks very sick and hardly aware of what is happening around her.
• Language. The f-word is used so frequently I would have lost track even if I had been counting. I do not remember vividly any other words, but I would not be surprised if they are in there.
• Sexuality. Women are shown pole dancing in a club in a very sensual scene. A man is shown shirtless. A younger woman approaches a man who could be her father in a sexual way, high on drugs, but he pushes her away, disgusted but gentle. Low cut shirts, short shorts and skirts, etc. It is implied that Beth's friend was planning to go home for the night with a man at the bar. Lots of sensual flirting.
• Drinking. Beth's friend gets drunk often and when she is first shown she openly admits that she is drunk. Men drink all the time. Multiple bars are shown where people are drinking and are often drunk.

My Thoughts
What to say? I just made this movie sound very unattractive, but in truth I do not regret spending my time watching it. I might regret it during the school year, but not on 4th of July weekend.
And now I step back and wonder why I did not regret watching a movie with so many problems in it.
It was because of the father. The father has horrible secrets from a horrible past life, but he comes off as a normal concerned father who loves his daughter very deeply. He does not look intimidating, does not have a deep scary voice, nothing implies that he should be associated with gangs and drugs and guns.
Flashbacks do. But his character does not. His actions sometimes do, but there is a strange disconnect between the actions he must take to save his daughter and who he really is. It's like he is still capable of that but he no longer is that.
I think I liked it for the disconnect, and the fatherly love. Because nothing quite gets me like a story where a father is shown being a real father (not a Disney father who was allowed to live)--especially for a teen son or daughter.

Movie Review: Napoleon Dynamite

Title: Napoleon Dynamite

Release Date: 2004
Genre: high school, comedy
My Rating: *
Official Rating: PG for thematic elements and language (note the language is the biggest problem)
Age Group: 14+

Summary:
Napoleon lives a boring life. Well, not actually, but he certainly seems to think so. Feeding the llama in the backyard every day doesn't strike him as out of the ordinary, but that seems to be the only interesting thing that ever happens to him.
Then his grandma crashes her dirt bike and his uncle comes to town. The uncle brings scams and a desire to travel back in time, Napoleon's brother's online girlfriend stops in, a girl tries to sell key chains to pay for college, Pedro shows up at school one day, and things just start to explode.
I think. It was hard to tell what was going on.

Word of Warning

•  Cartoony sketch of a woman in a bikini in the intro credits
• Bullying
• Language here was the biggest thing. Napoleon is probably the biggest offender of this. A few of the words we hear: frickin', idiot (this one a lot), dang, flippin'
• Mention of a "buttload of gangs"
• Guy hits his crotch on a bike, doubles over
• Mention of chatting online with "babes"
• A man is shown holding a woman in a chokehold and this is referred to as the "wisdom of man"
• A farmer shoots a cow off screen. The scene is set so that you expect to see this happen, but then a bus of kids pulls in front and the movie watchers don't see it, but the kids do and their faces show their horror.
• Napoleon claims his former girlfriend was a model. Someone asks if she was hot.
• Someone says "You guys are retarded."
• The uncle claims Napoleon still wets the bed to gain sympathy from one of his clients.
• Someone mentions hooking up with chicks.
• There is a sensual slow mo scene of a girl and a guy sharing ice cream and flirting (the entire scene is silent), then playing footsie
• A pinata shaped like a mean girl at school is busted to pieces
• A man sells a herb that apparently enhances bust size. He tries to sell this to high school girls.
• A man shows the possible size of a woman's breasts using sauce pans and putting them right in front of her own. The husband (rightfully) beats this guy up off screen.
• Slightly provocative dancing by an awkward teenager (hip thrusting, etc)
• A kiss (awkward, short barely touching)

My Thoughts
I was told this was funny. After watching ten minutes of it, I was pretty sure I'd figured it out: everyone who watches the movie tells everyone else it's good and super funny, even though it's really awful. I was sure it was an elaborate scam.
Then I talked to some of the people who liked this movie and found out they genuinely liked it.
I had a hard time understanding what was so funny about it. I didn't laugh out loud (and yes, I do that often for movies). I might have smirked at the cow scene (is that wrong?) and whenever they fed the llama, but that was about it. That summary up there was really hard to write.
I'm not saying it was a bad movie. I'm just saying it didn't make much sense to me, and it still doesn't. It's quite possible my sense of humor is very underdeveloped. I know people like this movie, and I am not judging them. I just don't understand what they see in it.

TV Show Review: Terra Nova

(Please note that while I will not be reviewing specific episodes, I will be commenting on the specific trends that most of the episodes followed.)

Title: Terra Nova
Release Date: 2011
Genre: family, survival, dystopia, romance, TV series
My Rating: ***
Official Rating: N/A
Age Group: 12+

Summary
The Shannon family lives in a horrible dystopian Chicago in which there is a 2 child policy and air so thick masks are worn to keep from suffocating. But as the Shannons tell their youngest, they love each other and their children so much they wanted another. So they broke the law, and their third child Zoe lived happily with them for a few years before they were found out. Then, the father was thrown in prison, separated from his beloved family.
Then Mrs (Dr) Shannon receives an offer for a new life. She and her family can travel into the past through a time machine where an outpost (Terra Nova) has been set up to give people a second chance. She takes it. Only problem is that Mr. Shannon can't come. But the family always beats the odds, and Mr. Shannon escapes from prison and sneaks his youngest through the portal.
That's when the real excitement comes. The Shannons must learn to deal with family problems, giant dinosaurs, school, friends left behind, strange diseases, rebels attacking the outpost, mysterious deaths, and of course boys (and girls) from outside the family.
Can they make it? Will they remain a closely knit family? Will they all live?

Word of Warning

•  There is one episode early in the season in which the parents try over and over to get some time alone in their bedroom. While it's pretty clear to an older audience that they want to have sex (they're married and have been apart for years), it isn't ever stated and they only kiss and embrace. They finally do get their moment, but all we see their shadows as they kiss, then the scene cuts. It's actually a rather sweet and cute storyline, but could be seen as a problem.
• Dinosaurs kill people. In terrible ways. There is a good amount of gore in this show.
• People steal and sneak out when they're not supposed to and teens drink concoctions that are equivalent to being alcoholic.
• There are traitors and crazy people and a storyline eventually surfaces that shows how a father alienated his son.
• Blackmail.
• Kissing between married and unmarried couples.
• Death happens all the time. People's close family members die, members of Terra Nova die, people just die. Sometimes main characters cause this. Sometimes it isn't right, sometimes it's the only option.

My Thoughts

Part of me feels that I have forgotten something. But then I remember that all things considered it was a relatively clean TV show, which really impressed me. Aside from the gore, it wasn't so bad. The story was interesting, and as with all TV shows just when you're ready to stop watching because you realized the plot is the same for every episode, it gets more interesting and a twist is added.
And then, after working out that twist, another twist was thrown in, and the show as canceled. So there's that.
The reason I watched it though was not for the twists or the story. Honestly, I am very tired of dystopian anything. I watched it because it was mostly clean and it was about a family. It was sweet, watching the father bond again with his teen son as they learned how to understand each other again. Watching the father protect his family and decide what to do about his oldest daughter's love interest. Watching the mother interact with her children and her husband. Watching all of them interact with each other. There was self-sacrifice, love, fighting, forgiveness, suffering, fear...everything a normal family encounters.
In a dystopian universe where the characters travel back in time. And yes, I am still battling with whether or not traveling back in time counters the point of the dystopian genre.

My only problem (aside from the gore) is that this was not continued. I really fell in love with the family. Not one character and not the plot line. It was the family.

Movie Review: Prom

Title: Prom
Author: Disney
Release Date: 2011
Genre: teen, high school, friendship, romance, drama
My Rating: *
Official Rating: PG for mild language and a brief fight
Age Group: 12+

Summary
Nova, and everyone else at her high school, has been waiting for this night, preparing for it, and everything has to be perfect. Prom is going to bring them all together. Knock down boundaries. Help them find love. Everything will be perfect for one night.
Until Nova's sort-of date cancels on her. And Jordan's boyfriend cheats on her. And Floyd can't even get a girl to go with him. And, and, and. Things fall apart. The decorations burn to the ground. Nova is devastated. This was supposed to be perfect.
So Nova does what she always does. She tries to pull things back together. She gets some unlikely help, and prom ends up happening after all. It's just not what everyone expected.

Word of Warning

• Prom is glorified as being the best thing every, something everyone needs to go to, something that will change lives. This outlook on prom is promoted through the entire movie to the point where it becomes really annoying because everyone watching knows that's not true.
• A student jokingly flirts with his teacher, suggesting they run away together.
• Backhanded reference to girlfriend as a "hot girl"
• Kisses. One from the back that's not visible. At least four others that are visible. One passionate and rather disgusting kiss involving lots of head tilting.
• Guys with no shirts on (letters painted on their chests)
• Girl tends to wear low shirts that reveal a bit of cleavage and short skirts (these aren't as much of a problem since the camera spends most of its time too high to see her legs)
• Mention of serial killers in relation to letters being cut out to create a message. This is meant as a joke.
• Someone mutters, "Oh God"
• A guy is randomly, and with no explanation, in the girls' bathroom. He acts like it's completely normal.
• One kid remarks to his friend that he had better check his breath to make sure he doesn't have "butt mouth" before talking to a girl
• One of the teens has a girlfriend/date who is out clubbing late at night (we do not actually meet her until the end of the movie). This same girl wears a dress which has a slit right down the center. Someone says of her dress that she would have to be a Victoria Secret model to pull it off.
• Guy cheats on his girlfriend and lies about it. He then lies to the other girl he likes. Basically, he lies a lot and manipulates girls.
• Girl tries on a lot of prom dresses (most tight, strapless, low, one with a high slit in the skirt, etc). The guy with her tries to get her to try on a little (very little) black one. She refuses.
• Father listens in on his daughter's conversation with her friends. He then threatens/guilt-trips the guy who likes the daughter into not asking her to prom.
• Brief fist fight. One kid gets beaten and has a bloody mouth. He seems fine otherwise, and the others do as well.
• Parents are awful parents. They are more friends than anything, and when they are parents, they are stressing the child go to a certain college and not mess up any of her plans.

My Thoughts
Um. What to say? It was funny. The best parts were Floyd trying to get a date, the funny things Jesse said, and Lucas and his best buddy Cory (the sophomores).
The writers tried to balance out the sparkly and glorious view of prom with a more negative one, proposed by Jesse, who says prom isn't all that great after all. But even he caves under Nova's dreams for a perfect night.
It's break. I have lots of time, but I do regret spending it watching this movie. Luckily it wasn't very long. It felt pointless. It had its funny moments, yes, but it felt like I was being indoctrinated. Prom is wonderful. Prom is perfect. Everyone loves prom. Everyone goes.
But, content-wise, it wasn't so bad. And as a junior in college, I am clearly not the target audience. And I never went to prom, so who am I to say this movie is wrong?
Maybe it's not. But it is empty. The plot is broken. The character development is nearly nonexistent.
There's nothing to it. It's one of those movies you watch when you're sick because you can't process anything.

Movie Review: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Title: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Release Date: 2014
Genre: family, comedy
Author: Disney
My Rating: ***
Official Rating: PG for rude humor including reckless behavior and language
Age Group: 12+ (I would like to say 8+ because that seems to be the target audience, but the content doesn't fit in that category)

Summary
Poor Alex has a tough life. Things just never go his way. The girl he likes thinks he's crazy, someone schedules a birthday party the same day of his, and he sets the school lab on fire. That's only the beginning, but multiply it by ten and you might get the idea.
Alex has a great family. They all love each other. But they just don't understand what it's like to have an awful day. In fact, their lives and days work out so well that Alex feels left out.
So in the middle of the night, celebrating by himself with a cupcake and the school Guinea pig, Alex makes a wish: that everyone would know what it's like to be him and have an awful day.
Oops. When he wakes up, Alex's seems to have come true. Alex feels bad and tries hard to help his family avert disaster, but one thing leads to another, and the day spirals into a black hole of awful.
What's a family to do when nothing goes right?

Word of Warning
 Note: I was pretty disappointed with some of the content. For the most part, they were funny and almost innocent jokes. But then there were the other ones that made me wish my younger siblings weren't sitting there. Made me wonder how much they were picking up on. It wasn't comfortable.

• Alex starts the movie by saying his parents are wrong
• A girl pukes three different times during the movie
• Slow motion of a 12 year old girl
• Term "sexist" is used out of context
• Character has a shirt that is too low in the front
• We see briefly pictures of models in bikinis and other tight short clothing
• 12 year old boys use the word "boobs"
• The term "Faummy" which means "father-mommy" which sounds sweet at first. But then it makes you wonder: why isn't father enough? Why must a father, who is someone who looks after his children, be seen as playing the mommy's role when he changes the baby's diaper or drives the kids to school?
• We see a little kid on a potty (no detail)
• Kid starts a fire in the science classroom (no one is hurt)
• A man sticks his hand in the garbage disposal to pull something out. Nothing happens, but this is a very bad idea in real life
• The kids are rude to their parents and, for the most part, the parents do not scold them
• "Hot" in reference to a girl
• Alex complains that another kid sent "butt thong" pictures to the whole school (these were Photoshopped, but the point here is the term)
• Parents kiss briefly twice
• Naked baby bottom more than once. also, the baby pees on the kitchen floor and later in the sink.
• Mother stubs her toe on the door and mutters "motherhood" in a tone that suggests she wanted to say something very different. My objection here is choosing to say such a beautiful word in such a tone.
• Mother walks in on teenage son in the shower (he is, presumably, completely undressed)
• Mother says, "I have seen every penis in this car" when she is in the car with her three sons and their father
• When talking about a classmate having chicken pox, a kid says that the spots are everywhere, even "in his butt crack."
• Near disaster/car crashes avoided, more comical than scary
• Anthony has apparently been waiting all year to "make out" with his girlfriend in the car. "Make out" isn't defined, but the parents respond by saying they didn't want to know that and leave it at that
• A girl guzzles cough syrup and it makes her high (more or less)
• Father's sleeves catch on fire (he's fine)
• Alligator in the house
• Male strippers were accidentally hired for a kid's birthday party. Luckily, disaster is averted and the men are told to keep it PG. The parents find this mistake amusing and are glad they caught it in time. The kids don't even know.

My Thoughts

It was funny--kind of. This may sound like an odd critique, but the laughs were short lived. They weren't those deep from-your-belly laughs that leave you sore and exhausted and feeling good after a movie. Not the kind that, if someone were to quite that line from the movie, would cause you to laugh when you remembered how funny it was. They were in-the-moment funny. Which is fine, but not satisfying, and not what I expect from a comedy.

Also, the parents weren't parents. As in, even though they ran the house and worked jobs and all of that, they tended to interact with their kids more on a buddy-buddy level. This was evident when Alex reveals Anthony has been waiting all year to make out with his girlfriend. Instead of speaking to Anthony about this, the parents just shrug it off and say with a little shudder, "I didn't need to know that." What? That's not what a parent is supposed to do, is it?

The movie did have some good points, however. The family dynamics were not the classic bickering family you see in shows like this. (Indeed, "show" is what it felt like. An episode from a TV show, not a well-thought out movie.) The family members really did support each other, and the teen characters were not your typical selfish creeps. Anthony does what he can to keep his girlfriend happy but eventually *SPOILER* breaks up with her to be with his family. They all ban together to create a really awesome birthday party for Alex. They don't want to tear each others' throats out, they want to help each other out. In addition to family dynamics, or maybe in elaboration of, the father sees his role as to protect everyone from harm and bad days. Which is, I think, a revelation of a great truth movies like this often neglect to point out.

I don't regret watching it. But I watched it on break with a week ahead of me. I wouldn't watch it again. I did laugh. Some parts made me squirm. Some parts made me smile.
Three stars seems about right.

Movie Review: Sister Act

Title: Sister Act
Release Date: 1992
Genre: comedy, music, religious (kind of)
My Rating: ***
Official Rating: PG for mild violence and language (though why this is not PG-13 is beyond me)
Age Group: 16+

Summary:
Delores Van Carter is a singer at a lounge who wants to take her carrier farther. She is also the lover of the lounge's married owner--and a big time crime boss (which she doesn't know). Frustrated with Vince and his treatment of her, Delores finally breaks and decides to leave. When she marches up to his quarters to tell him this, she witnesses a murder ordered by Vince and committed by two of his men.
Terrified, Delores goes to the police. Turns out they've had their suspicions for a long time but needed evidence--or a witness. Since they can't get a court date right away, Delores must go into hiding.
They put her the last place anyone would look for her: in a convent. That leads to mixed results.


Word of Warning

•  A nun warns a young girl that the path she is on will lead straight to the devil.
• Revealing dresses (low necks and short skirts)
• A man is shown without a shirt as he is dressing. This is used to imply he had his lover have just spent the night together.
• A man kisses a woman's neck/shoulder. Later there are at least two (possibly three) kisses.
• Vince is a married man having an affair. We barely see his wife and he seems to have no concern for her, giving away her coat to his lover.
• Words: d*** (at least twice), a** (at least twice), black a**, h*** (a few times)
• A man is shot in the head off screen.
•  Vince is a leader of some major criminals. Drugs are mentioned. People are killed to keep his secret (probably not the first time this has happened).
• Someone says of the nuns, "these people don't even have sex."
• Someone says, "I just saw a guy get his face blown off!"
• A bra is thrown over a curtain.
• Mention of holster hips.
• Delores almost leaves when she is told she must live by the nuns' vow of chastity while she stays with them.
• The Mass becomes focused on the performance of the nuns singing songs.
• Someone says that "singing is better than sex."
• Punches are thrown, people are shoved about. Gunshots. One man is shot in the arm (no detail shown).
• A girl is thrust from a moving car.
• Nuns say a prayer out loud near someone to guilt trip him into giving them what they want.
• Vince remarks, "I know this woman in the Biblical sense."
• A woman punches two men between the legs. They double over, reaching for that area in pain.
• A nun lies to protect another woman.
• The priest character is more concerned with getting more people into the church and raising more money for his church and less concerned with what is being taught to his congregation and why they are there.
• Delores has a hard time living with the nuns after her old life. Eventually she learns a lesson, but she is still rather worldly.
• There is a misunderstanding about nuns in general. The convent is Carmelite but the nuns there all seem to have different ideas as to what they were signing up for. This is an easy mistake to make when making a movie, but the confusion of not knowing that there are different convents/orders that do different things just added a rather strange element of tension.

My Thoughts
I wouldn't rewatch it. But I don't regret the time I spent watching it. Goodness, that seems to be the theme of the movies I have been watching lately.

Still, the movie was funny. One element I really liked was that even though the Mother Superior seemed to be more old-fashioned, and even though Delores (pretending to be a sister) brought in a slightly more secular/worldly approach, the old-fashioned ways were never pointed at as being bad and old-fashioned and needing to be replaced. They were simply seen as something that was good but which could be improved upon.

As for the secular/worldly approach, this was blown out of proportion. By this I mean it was sold as being secular/worldly, but it really wasn't a big deal. It was a big change from what the nuns were used to, but it was more about working with the people and having fun. Which is what many nuns do.

So my biggest complaint? The confusion as to how convents work. Yes, reform sometimes happens in orders and convents. But it doesn't really work like this, as far as I know. The reform shown in this movie felt like the convent was changing its entire focus/ministry and become a different convent/order. It was confusing, and frustrating, for a Catholic.

But overall, it was a funny movie, handled well, and all things considered they didn't do a horrible representation of the Catholic Church. It may have had its flaws, but I have seen much, much worse.

Movie Review: Call of the Wild: A Race for Buck

Title: Call of the Wild: A Race for Buck
Genre: family, adventure, animals
My Rating: **
Official Rating: PG for some violence, language, thematic material, and brief smoking
Age Group: 8+

Summary: Nine-year-old Ryann is visiting her grandfather in Montana since her parents are off enjoying Europe. Ryann does not want to be in Montana. At all. How is she supposed to keep up her appearance and act like the popular girls at school if she's in Montana where there is no TV and no mall?
When an injured dog-wolf wanders into her grandfather's barn, Ryann is introduced to a whole new world: dog sledding. In a desperate attempt to keep the dog (named Buck by Ryann) from a cruel dog sledder, Ryann and the teenage neighbor boy train Buck to be a lead dog. If they can win a dog sled race, they can keep Buck. If they can't, well, Buck goes to the man who is cruel to his son and his dogs.
Can they win the race? Can Buck overcome his wolf side?

Word of Warning

•  Ryann is rude to her grandfather.
• A man yells at his son for losing a race and says that the son embarrassed him in front of the whole town. Later, he tells his son he is stupid and tells him to cheat in a dog race. The father makes the son ride in the back of his pickup. He says to the boy, "If you don't win, you don't bother coming home."
• Someone makes one of my favorite innocent movie insults: shouldn't you be at home having a heart attack?
• Mention of ghosts.
• A man beats a dog with a club in a veiled scene that implies it happens but we never see the stick hit the dog.
• The word "cuss."
• A myth is told of a man who is apparently an escaped convict, catches rabbits with his hands and eats them raw, and eats rocks. These are just rumors and the grandfather assures Ryann that he has never hurt anyone.
• Someone threatens to have a dog put down.
• Jack sprains his ankle (minor) in a minor sled crash. This sled crash causes the kids to be stranded for about five minutes.
• A man apparently dies from a beating. This does not happen in the movie, but in a book the grandfather is reading to Ryann. There is a scene shown of a man sprawled in the snow but nothing else.
• A quick kiss on the cheek.
• A dog attacks a man (the man is uninjured).

My Thoughts
All things considered, that list is pretty short. So why the low rating? For a few reasons, one of which is that I simply did not find the story line very interesting (isn't this the same story line we get for every animal movie involving a semi-wild pet?). The other is the quality. I don't mind a low budget movie--as long as the acting is decent. I don't even mean good. I just mean decent, and preferably with an original story line (only the films that have lots of funding can get away with a stupid story line that's been done a million times).
Ok. So I don't mean to make it sound awful. My younger siblings enjoy it, and quite honestly, it is aimed at their age group and not mine. Usually I enjoy their movies. This one was tolerable. But aside from the fact that I didn't enjoy it very much, the content itself was pretty clean.
So in short: it was fine. Not something I would rewatch, and not something I would have watched if I were not on break. But not painful and something I regret either.

Trojan Horse Book Review: Story of a Girl

Before I do the review, I think I should briefly re-explain what a Trojan Horse Review is since it has been so long since our last one (thank goodness for that!). The Greeks left the Trojans a gift, a great wooden horse. Inside, Greek soldiers waited to spring a deadly trap upon the Trojans and completely destroy their city. A Trojan Horse Review is a review of one of those books/movies/albums/other that comes highly recommended, disguised as something good, and is nearly deadly. Due to the deadly nature of these materials, the author of the post may, on moral grounds, not be as detailed in the review as usual. While the main and major problems will be listed, smaller ones may not be mentioned or noticed by the post author due to a skimming of the material.

***MATURE CONTENT AND SPOILERS***

Title: Story of a Girl
Author: Sara Zarr
Genre: Romance,
My Rating: -**** (yes, that is a negative rating)
Official Rating: Teen Fiction
Age Group: 18+ (or, more appropriately, not at all)
The Horse: National Book Award Finalist, insinuation that a problem will be addressed/resolved when it is not dealt with
Summary:
Deanna's father caught her with Tommy when she was thirteen. Tommy was a senior in highschool. In such a small town, everyone knows the story, and Deanna just wants to escape it. On top of that, her own family has rejected her. Her father has not spoken to her since the day he found the two and her mother isn't all that motherly. Her brother and his girlfriend seem to be the only ones who still love Deanna, but they've got a baby to deal with. As if that's not enough, Deanna has fallen for her best friend--who is dating someone else.
What's a girl to do?

Word of Warning
Where to start? There's far too much in this book to all be mentioned in a post like this, particularly because with such a big moral problem as the center of the book (which is not dealt with by the end), I did not read for the little details.

• Deanna and Tommy did drugs and smoked who-knows-what. We're well aware that their relationship was sexual and only that, even getting a few descriptions (nothing very graphic, but still way too much). As for what happened, suffice it to say that they went "too far" and after a doctor checked Deanna, her mother rushed her to the store and bought her a box of condoms.
• Deanna's brother and his girlfriend have a baby.
• All sorts of sexual jokes are made. People mention "boobs" and one guy grabs Deanna's bottom while she is out in public.
• Deanna doesn't seem to really regret her relationship with Tommy for any good reasons. Her reputation in her town is completely destroyed and people do not respect her anymore. She doesn't regret losing her virginity or the drugs or the smoking or anything else. She knows Tommy used her and is angry with him, but also willing to forgive him. She even lets him drive her home from work.
• Tommy doesn't regret it either. In fact, he's happy to try again. He almost succeeds, but Deanna stops him and yells at him.
• Deanna and her childhood friend hang out at his house in his bedroom with no supervision. Nothing happens, but the situation is not a safe one. He even offers to let her spend the night, but she doesn't because her dad would be angry.
• Deanna's boss is gay.
• Deanna's dad suggests that she's in a sexual relationship with her boss. Angry at him for always expecting the worst of her, she yells at him and says he's right. Then she assures him that he's wrong.
• Deanna and her childhood friend discuss kissing and he tells her that guys wonder what it would be like to kiss all girls, even teachers (but only the hot ones).
• On a day designated as having to do with sexual abstinence, a girl and her boyfriend are caught taking it too far. They're proud of being caught on that particular day and boast about it. The whole school seems to think of it as a funny joke.
• Deanna kisses her childhood friend even though she is well aware that he is dating another girl (Deanna's friend).
• The writing style is awful.
• Deanna may have depression.
• Many many other problems.

If the main problem (Deanna's loss of virginity at age thirteen and the consequences of that) had been dealt with, the book might be appropriate for older ages. Maybe. But it's left hanging. Are we really supposed to be satisfied with the fact that Deanna hasn't had sex again simply because she's afraid it'll ruin her reputation? The book is haunted by the unresolved problem, making the reader feel disappointed, lost, confused, and with a negative outlook on life.
For all the bad, there simply was not enough goodness to conquer. In fact, there was almost no goodness at all.

My Thoughts
I picked up the book thinking I'd try something a little on the dangerous side to review for an older audience. I also figured it would be interesting to see this problem resolved. I knew it wouldn't be done satisfactorily, but I expected more than I got.
Because I got nothing. The book dug the hole deeper and deeper, and I was barely into it before I found myself skimming along--and caught by a deadly hook. I have found very few books that I can put down once I start reading, and this book came close to being one of them.
As I reached to pick it up and skim some more, I noticed something. The seal of the National Book Award Finalist on the front cover, next to the face of a girl who looks haunted, sly, and blank all at the same time.
And honestly, I was disgusted. Who judges these things? Even if it came down to the writing style, the book was bad. I wondered, was it a finalist because of the issue it addressed?
Well the issue was never resolved. And that's one of the most dangerous things a book can do.