SHRIMP

In this wonderful sequel to Gingerbread (2002), the irrepressible Cyd Charisse is back, finishing high school in San Francisco and hoping to reunite with her former surfer-love, Shrimp. CC, as she now calls herself, is also starting her first friendships with girls and reevaluating her family relationships, especially with her perfectionist mother, areas in which the teenager grows realistically over the year. In an equally plausible way, she deals with topics familiar to teenagers but often avoided in their literature, like lust, sex—including oral sex—and memories of her less-than-earth-shattering abortion. CC’s impressively original, partly stream-of-consciousness voice sounds like a real, well-educated rebellious teenage girl, but more quick-witted and clever than most. Her fascination with her surroundings—food, clothing, music, movies, places—creates an eclectic celebration of San Francisco and, briefly, Manhattan, one of many strengths of this unusually entertaining offering, which can be enjoyed as a stand-alone. (Fiction. YA)