This was a raw and unflinching look at the experience of being a girl. Nina Faye is finally dating the boy that she has liked for years, and she will do anything to prove that she is "worthy" of him.

The author really wrote with such honesty that at times it was really painful to read about what Nina was going through, or even the things she was doing herself, the choices she made (however bad). But haven't we all been there at some point, desperately clinging to a guy because we wanted to be loved? I felt so bad for Nina but at the same time, I totally got where she's coming from so I couldn't help but like her. I also love the fact that the author wrote frankly about bodily functions-- gross but absolutely a part of the realities of life and growing up-- I love it when fiction refuses to gloss over this stuff.

The story is interspersed with bits of Nina's writing-- short stories about virgin martyrs and saints. They were kind of an interesting peek into Nina's head, but they didn't do that much for me. I thought the story was already great without these bits. ( )

This book is raw, awkward, and with "in your face" true happenings. I must admit that quite a few truths were uncomfortable to read, and yet they do happen. This is on a short list of some books that Texas parents want banned from school libraries. I'd say any young person that has the reading skills and interest to read this book will be able to "handle' it's truths and hopefully it would open a dialogue with someone they trust.
The author's note at the end is the treasure, pick it up and read this part even if you don't read the whole book. ( )

I really hated this book, BUT I kept pondering it and coming back. I really rejected the main character's experiences as being 'universal' for women in the first part, but, much like Damsel, they had a grain of truth to them that kept me from stopping reading. I have the feeling this is one of those reads that will come to mind over and over again throughout the years. The ending was not a huge winner-take-all, but more of a stubbornly satisfied I made it through. ( )

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: What Girls Are Made Of

Nina Faye grew up in a household of absent parents. The rare moments her mother was around, she taught Nina that unconditional love doesn’t exist. Nina was instructed to maintain her beauty because there would be no love without it and that the key to keeping love was sex. Of course, her mother also told her that one day she might stop loving Nina.

This is one of those books that should be included in high school. It would also be the book many parents would protest because it includes sex. This doesn’t romanticize teenage relationships; it tells the truth. How do children learn about love and sex? What happens when the influences around them are all they have to base a relationship off of? This is what Nina faces. Growing up with parents who barely paid attention to her, the only way Nina knows how to function in a relationship is by what her mother has told her. She takes her mother’s advice to heart, not realizing her mother was an unhappy woman in her relationship. Not realizing that when her mother spoke about relationships, it was to vent about how hers was broken. Words have power. Children are always listening and learning from what happens around them.

When Nina falls for a boy, she changes her entire life to fit around his. She loses herself in the relationship and only surfaces long enough to go to work. She never once thinks about her own wants or needs. She will make choices people aren’t happy with, but she also makes choices that many of us have made when we were young. Regardless if we want to admit it or not. And when Nina loses him, she is left adrift, lost and confused as to what she should do.

This is Nina’s journey through love and loss. At just 16 she will learn how to make tough decisions and live with the consequences of her actions. She will lose everything and have to relearn what it means to be herself and what love really is.

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Authentic voice of teenage Nina, completely in love with Seth, but with her own admission (never spoken of, but nevertheless true) that he cares for her only with "conditions", her pregnancy and abortion, and their eventual break & the aftermath. As a sort of commentary on female-hood and Nina's dreams/nightmares, the book is broken up with with intercalary chapters inserted - written with touches of magical realism and horror mixed- a teen girl's emerging realization that what girls are supposed to be is not what she always "feels" or "thinks" about herself, and how difficult it is to define oneself apart from boys, etc Very straightforward, explicit sex scenes and narrator's struggles with the effects of the sexual relationship, and detailed scenes of her visits to Planned Parenthood, and the abortion, etc. While the author's style effectively weaves a compelling story of young love, unhappy family, struggling teen girl, with passages of lyrical story, it left me feeling so sad and almost disturbed. Cavalcade of Authors author - NOT a book for younger teens for sure. ( )