BITTERSWEET

In a typical first-person teen narrative, an artistic type discovers that the world doesn’t revolve around her. Since Grams has been in the nursing home, Taylor Rose has found her life is stuck. She’s stuck in her artwork despite an invitation to a prestigious competition, somehow going to the prom with a guy she despises, as well as realizing that summer vacation means the loss of best friend Ebbie. To top it off, Dad doesn’t go to the grocery store and bring home interesting food, and no one is doing the laundry. Over a few weeks of summer vacation, Lamm manages to create sympathy for Taylor, although her drama-queen style continues, but she gradually draws readers into Taylor’s pain and internal logic. As Taylor begins to see that others around her, including Grams, have lives separate from her own, she begins to lose her self-consciousness and to develop awareness of her real values and the value of her friends and family. The writing is quite pleasantly inventive, using metaphors and surprising phrases. Serious issues, such as attempted date rape and the death of an elderly family member, are unrealistically depicted in this nonetheless realistic portrayal of an individual’s struggle to come to terms with herself. (Fiction. YA)