High school graduates might joke that they "survived" high school, suggesting it's a battleground for something -- and they're right. In the middle of classes and the endless fight to raise your GPA, high schoolers battle over dating drama, family drama, and (best and worst of all) friendship drama. It's easy to let all of that stuff weigh you down, so once you're through, you feel like you survived something monumental. Emery Lord, attuned to all of this, gives us a beautiful contemporary young adult novel about new beginnings, heartbreaks, and prejudices that will make anyone who's been through high school reminisce and, by the end, smile.
Emery Lord is a YA contemporary fiction author who writes books about teenage girls, all different and relatable. Her books include Open Road Summer, The Start of Me and You, When We Collided, The Names They Gave Us and The Map From Here to There. Her books are powerful in their ability to bring difficult situations to the page, with simple yet heart-wrenching prose. Her books have been published in 10 different languages, and have been featured on YALSA and state book lists. You can find Emery Lord at emerylord.com. You can find more of my reviews of Lord's work here.
It's been one year since it happened . . . When Paige Hancock's first boyfriend died in a swimming accident, she shut out almost everyone. Now Paige has decided it's finally time to rejoin the world, and she has a plan. First on the list: go out with Ryan Chase, her longtime and newly single crush. And last on the list: swim. Terrifying, yet possible? But when Ryan's sweet, nerdy cousin Max moves to town and recruits Paige for the QuizBowl team (of all things!), her perfect plan is thrown for a serious loop. Starting over isn't easy, but Paige knows the scariest things are usually the most difficult. Can she face her fears and open herself up to life and love again?
Paige is a fascinating main character, and one I relate to immensely. She's cool and she's nerdy. She's flawed and she's herself. She's the friend who'll correct your grammar and the friend you can call if you need to picked up in the middle of the night. There's a great balance to her character that can represent a bunch of different high school girls--any girl who's been in high school will find some way to relate to her, which is why she's such a magical main character. In addition to being a balancing character, Paige also has so much to balance: a new plan, her parents, her own past, her own future, boys, and so much more. In the midst of all of that, she's also trying to discover who she is -- not just the Girl Whose Boyfriend Drowned. I found all her actions and decisions to be true to her character, knowing everything she's balancing and her goals. Emery Lord did a wonderful job bringing Paige to life for us -- I smiled when she smiled, and cried when she cried, because in a way, she felt like an extension of myself, even though we never went through the same types of things in high school. These are all the reasons I found that made Paige such a relatable, fascinating, and magical read. I think Emery Lord nailed her main character, which in turn gives readers a chance to have a truly emotional experience when they read all about Paige's junior year.
And of course, Paige's junior year would not have been complete without her best friends Tessa, Kayleigh, and Morgan. I love the emphasis Lord puts on friendship and hardship in this novel. Paige, Tessa, Kayleigh, and Morgan all have their different personalities and their differences, but they're thick as thieves and would do anything for one another. I also appreciate the way in which there's never any true "catty" drama between the four: we need more of that in young adult literature. Not every girl is always at each other's throat, and I think Lord did a good job of creating believable tension between the four girls without turning them against one another. Sometimes, there are some really cheesy lines about all the friends being together, but these cheesy sentiments ring true when you experience having a tight knit group of friends. This group's dynamics were so interesting, like they were a whole different character when they were together. From the cheesy to the tense, Lord always stayed true to what having a group of friends is like, especially when those friends would do literally anything for one another.
Junior year would have been much less interesting if it weren't for Max Watson, the underdog turned hero. I loved Max's character, especially from Paige's eyes. She is so flawed and prejudiced, but especially when it came to him. More specifically at the beginning, because she saw him as a means to an end. I loved how when her views on herself changed, her views on Max usually followed suit until she finally saw him for what he is, the way that she finally understood herself. The parallels were beautifully subtle, so that the readers (along with Paige) had this "ah-ha!" moment, and were super excited when Paige finally had her "Elizabeth moment." I also enjoyed how Max wasn't like every other contemporary young adult fiction love interest. He wasn't "super intense" in that way some love interests are: bold, bright, and charismatic, that of course he would be the person Paige would date for her plan. He was just himself, the way a lot of guys in high school are. The dynamics between Max and Paige grew naturally, and when they weren't getting along it felt strange to see them so cold towards one another. Thanks to Lord's writing and our main character, we get to understand Max through Paige, and thus we understand Paige better because of Max's presence.
Like I've mentioned so many times before, Paige (and every high schooler) balances so much. In fact, at times, their plate might not just be full, but overflowing. Lord stays true to this idea, making Paige's high school experience reflective of anyone's high school experience. Yet, not one thread gets lost of buried -- just when we might have forgotten how Paige's grandmother is doing, or whether or not she's still doing QuizBowl, Lord picks us right back up and gives us an update on how Paige is reacting to all the things in her life. Lord makes sure we don't miss a single moment, and we never get lost or confused in the messy timeline of high school. The emphasis on friendships and hardships makes the story believable, and our ability to not get lost within all of that is a testament to Lord's strong and poignant writing. Her writing shows us that this is the kind of story that validates teenagers, and their feelings, and their experience, no matter how they'd be perceived by the rest of the world (or, maybe in spite of it). Paige goes through so much, much more than anyone in high school should reasonably go through. Lord takes that stereotypical "high school girls / teenage girls are so dramatic" idea out of everyone else's hands, and shows the world the why. Because high schoolers go through so much at a young age, because high school girls especially have a lot to contend with, and because who wouldn't be dramatic when their plate is overflowing? Lord gives high school girls and high schoolers a voice in contemporary fiction, and for that, I couldn't be more grateful.
And finally, after 4 years of hoping and wishing, Emery Lord has finally delivered on a sequel to this novel, titled The Map from Here to There! Stay tuned for my review!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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