Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch Hummer

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch Hummer

Publisher: Fiction Std, E Book
Publication Date: March 6, 2012
Source: given to me by author in exchange for an honest review
Buy It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Apron Bramhall has come unmoored. It’s 1985 and her mom has passed away, her evil stepmother is pregnant, and her best friend has traded her in for a newer model. Fortunately, she’s about to be saved by Jesus. Not that Jesus—the actor who plays him in Jesus Christ, Superstar. Apron is desperate to avoid the look-alike Mike (no one should look that much like Jesus unless they can perform a miracle or two), but suddenly he’s everywhere. Until one day, she’s stuck in church with him—of all places. And then something happens; Apron’s broken teenage heart blinks on for the first time since she’s been adrift. 
Mike and his grumpy boyfriend, Chad, offer her a summer job in their flower store and Apron’s world seems to calm. But when she uncovers Chad’s secret, coming of age becomes almost too much bear. She’s forced to see things the adults around her fail to—like what love really means and who is paying too much for it. --Goodreads
 Apron is a girl that has too much going on in her life.  Her mother died of cancer when she was young and her father is about to remarry this loser from Brazil, Margie.  To make matters worse, her best friend is ditching her to be popular and one of her new friends may not survive the summer.  Girl Unmoored is a fantastic story about learning to accept things that one may not be ready for.

When I first read what this book was about, I wasn’t entirely sure about what type of book this was.  It sounded ironic and cute.  I mean, look at the cover: I immediately think, cute.  After reading it and being very wrong on the first impression, I discovered that Girl Unmoored is so much more than cute, it details this young girl going through some mature situations and dealing with them the only way she knows how.

There was such a diverse mix of characters.  Mike was Apron’s savior, quite literally, and was easily one of the nicest characters in the book.  Mike’s partner, Chad, was sick with AIDS and after Apron had to watch her mother go in a similar fashion, the parallels between the two helped Apron grow.  Apron’s father was a Latin professor, teaching Apron the language every chance he got, even to speak things that he was too ashamed or upset with to say in English.  Apron was our narrator, whisking its readers on a ride of emotions.  One problem I had with the book was that, at first, I could not figure out how old Apron was.  I knew she was young but I must have missed the first time her age was mentioned because it confused me quite a bit.  She would be so mature one minute and then would be worrying about something that did not concern older people.  To clear up anything, she is in seventh grade and it is almost the summer.  I had to come back to this mental note again and again, because she deals with so much more than a normal seventh grader and that component is what made the book shine most for me (not that she dealt with these situations at such a young age, but how she thought and felt about these events).

Hummer knew how to make these awful circumstances and tragic events seem real.  I struggled in the beginning, not really latching onto the book as much as I had hoped.  By the end, however, I was to tears; Girl Unmoored moved me deeply and refused to let me go until the very last page.  Jennifer Gooch Hummer took something that may or may not have happened to some of us, and turned it into a seventh grader’s struggle to discover where she stands in the world.

Girl Unmoored is a coming of age story with a young girl, Apron, who needs to be saved.  This story will take its readers on a rollercoaster of emotions and leave them crying by the end.  

First Sentence:
“Jesus was in his underwear.”
-Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch Hummer, p. 9
Rating: 

Rated PG-13 for domestic violence.
Cover: 3
Characters: 4
Writing Style: 4
Plot: 3
Ending: 5

Overall: 



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1 comments

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