In Screwed a seemingly innocent girl, who comes from a perfect family, leads a perfect life and gets the perfect grades all of a sudden, becomes pregnant. Okay, obviously it was not all of a sudden. So the author wanted to tell the story of teen pregnancy from the perspective of a girl who would not fall under the norm of teen pregnancy. Apparently, teen pregnancy does not happen to smart girls (this was a underlying message reiterated constantly by a few major characters). Smart girls are immune to life… right. Also, this book is full of the most extreme cases of self absorption. You have a baby daddy that cannot give up his playa status, parents who would rather have their daughter have an abortion to save face with the church community (okay I do like how they portray this end of the spectrum because often times it is those who preach that commit the worse sins… also I don’t think abortion is a sin, but that is a moot point), and a best friend who is just… not a nice person.
The only redeeming quality of this story was Helen, the next door neighbor that picked up Grace from the streets after her parents threw her out. Actually anyone associated with Helen and her good deeds were the best characters of this whole book. That is all I can say about this book. I don’t know if I wanted to like it but I wanted to try it, especially because as someone who deals with teens all day this is a prominent issue in the inner city. This book however, does not speak to inner city kids, kids who don’t have an heiress as a next door neighbor that will help house them and pay for their needs including college. That just doesn’t happen in our neighborhood, and I could not see a connection to any of the teens I see every day.
Thanks Net Galley!
2/5 stars.
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