Just a Girl

by Carrie Mesrobian

Overview

Taking a hard look at the societal constraints on teenage girls, Morris Award nominee Carrie Mesrobian tells one girl’s story with bracing honesty and refreshing authenticity.

By her senior year of high school, Rianne has exhausted all the fun there is to have in small-town Wereford, Minnesota. Volleyball season is winding down, the parties feel tired, and now that she’s in a serious relationship with reformed player Luke Pinsky, her wild streak has ended. Not that she ever did anything worse than most guys in her school...but she knows what everyone thinks of her. 

Including her parents. Divorced but now inexplicably living together again, Rianne wonders why they’re so quick to point out every bad choice she’s making when they can’t even act like adults—or have the decency to tell Rianne whether or not they’re getting back together. With an uncomfortable home life and her once-solid group of friends now dissolving, the reasons for sticking around after high school are few. So why is Rianne locking step when it comes to figuring out her future?

That’s not the only question Rianne can’t answer. Lately she’s been wondering why, when she has a perfect-on-paper boyfriend, she wants anything but. Or how it is that Sergei, a broken-English-speaking Russian, understands her better than anyone who’s known her all her life? And—perhaps the most troubling question—why has Rianne gotten stuck with an “easy girl” reputation for doing the same exact things as guys without any judgment?

Carrie Mesrobian, acclaimed author of Sex & Violence and Cut Both Ways, sets fire to the unfair stereotypes and contradictions that persist even in the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062349934
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/28/2017
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	945 KB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Carrie Mesrobian teaches writing to teens in Minneapolis, where she lives with her husband and daughter. Her debut novel, Sex & Violence, was named a Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, in addition to being nominated for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award. She has also written Just a Girl, Perfectly Good White Boy, and Cut Both Ways. Learn more about her and her fake boyfriends at www.carriemesrobian.com, or follow her on Twitter @carriemesrobian.

Editorial Reviews

01/02/2017
In small-town Wereford, Minn., high school senior Rianne has a reputation as an easy hookup: “She was Hat Trick Girl; she wasn’t someone you took to prom.” As graduation nears, Rianne finds herself with a steady boyfriend, a mother who has basically washed her hands of her, a father suddenly back in the picture, and no plans for what’s next. As in her previous books, Mesrobian (Cut Both Ways) writes meaningfully about teens who aren’t bound for college and the complexity, intensity, and double standards of teenage sexuality. Rianne’s infamous “hat trick” night mostly involved kissing. Her first sexual encounter, as a sophomore, was clearly rape—she was blitzed on pot, he was a college student—though she just thinks of it as regrettable. And most of the sex she’s had hasn’t been particularly satisfying. This depressing picture changes when she hooks up with Sergei, an attractive Russian in his 20s. Genuine sexual pleasure is a decided improvement, but as Rianne and Sergei grow closer, it feels less like she’s making decisions for herself and more like she’s still being defined by sex and men. Ages 14–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

There’s nothing simple about being just a girl, and this resonant, thoughtful novel makes that abundantly, stunningly clear.” — Booklist (starred review)

“An authentic, smart read for older teens.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Mesrobian offers another honest and emotionally charged look at the secret lives of teenage girls. Raw and never sensationalized, this title is for readers who like contemporary YA fiction with a realistically dark edge.” — School Library Journal

“Mesrobian writes meaningfully about the complexity, intensity, and double standards of teenage sexuality.” — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

There’s nothing simple about being just a girl, and this resonant, thoughtful novel makes that abundantly, stunningly clear.

Booklist (starred review)

12/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—Mesrobian offers another honest and emotionally charged look at the secret lives of teenage girls. Here, the author examines the abuse that girls withstand from others and sometimes inflict on one another, as well as the double standards that exist between them and their male peers. Rianne is a high school senior with a bad reputation. Widely known in her small town as a slut and nicknamed Hat Trick Girl even by her closest friends, she is struggling to make it to graduation and dreading what comes afterward. With a difficult home life, a crumbling friend group, and no serious job or college prospects, she views starting a life with Luke, a handsome hometown boy who sees past her reputation, as a good plan. Unfortunately, Rianne isn't sure she can stay faithful, at least not after she meets Sergei, a much older foreign exchange student from Russia who looks at her with new eyes and promises to take her away from her tiny town and into the wild world. Gritty and real in ways that many female protagonists are not, Rianne is more of an antihero in her quest to create a good life for herself, despite her nearly constant and seemingly avoidable failures to do so. The dialogue is refreshingly accurate; the offhand snipes between friends are particularly sharp and familiar, and the occasional pop culture references and use of slang don't feel at all contrived. VERDICT Raw and never sensationalized, this title is recommended for readers who like contemporary YA fiction with a realistically dark edge.—Emily Grace Le May, Mt. Pleasant Library - Providence Community Library

School Library Journal

2016-12-06
A high school senior whose mother has given her an ultimatum that she must leave home immediately after graduation struggles to decide what she will do next. Bright and tough but at times self-loathing, Rianne stumbles into a serious relationship with her hook-up buddy, Luke, during their last few months of school. However, she also has several electrifying sexual encounters with Sergei, a Russian student studying at a nearby college. Despite enjoying a small, tightknit group of friends, Rianne has had to deal with being labeled a slut, and while she recognizes it for the unfair double standard it is, she is still shamed by it. The alcohol- and pot-fueled hangouts that make up a lot of the social scene in their small Minnesota town will ring true to rural teens. Rianne is a complex, conflicted character, and her third-person narrative voice keeps her at a bit of a remove even as she grapples intensely with her thoughts. All of the central characters are white with the exception of Rianne's friend Kaj, who is Hmong-American, and each is interesting in his or her own right. The unexpected ending may leave some readers wondering, but it's not a surprise that this slice-of-life novel leaves things slightly ambiguous. An authentic, smart read for older teens. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews