(3.75 rounded up)

Very much feels like a book from 2012, but still, the topics discussed are still as relevant today as it was then. ( )

I liked it well enough.
It's realistic and deals with some major issues in, you know, believable and real ways. ( )

Rating: 4.75/5

Heartbreaking, thought-provoking, amazingly written... this book was good on every levels.
Sid is the first heroine in so many books that I felt connected to, I could feel her pain and identify myself in her insecurities. She didn't feel like a fictional character at all; she was this girl I knew who shared with me all the horrible things that were going on in her life. I ached for her and I wished I could hug her and never let her go.

The author's writing is funny and witty and gripping, she tackled the toughest issues without being over-the-top or sounding overdramatic or like she was too hard to cram it all in 300 pages. She mixed humour and angst and man candy and swoony kisses perfectly, effortlessly making me fall in love with her book and characters from the first chapter.

Colleen Clayton, I'm watching out for your next book. ( )

Sixteen-year-old Sid expected to have a great time on her school’s weekend ski trip. Unfortunately, she didn’t know how to ski. When she met Dax, a handsome older guy who seemed to really like her, she decided to sneak out to meet him for a party. However, when she woke up the next morning, she couldn’t remember anything that had happened.

Read the rest of my review on my blog (and don't forget to follow me via e-mail): http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/what-happens-next-colleen-cla...
( )

The topic of this novel is such a potential mine field: date rape. Most writers would slip over the lurid line in a second. But Clayton deftly avoids that. Example one: the voice of sixteen year old Cassidy (Sid) Murphy is honest and wise-cracking and self deprecating. Ordinary world for Sid is joking around with friends and being irritated about her appearance--red hair, big boobs. Example two: the incident itself is handled carefully and the after-effects are realistically complex. Case in point--Sid struggles to tell her mom what happened (and here is a mom who is not awful, by the way) deciding that she can deal with her mom's anger but not her mom's horror and grief. I could not put this book down, marveling the whole time I was reading it that I had no idea what was going to happen. ( )