The Difference Between You and Me

Mar 09, 2013 Les rated it 3 of 5 stars

Our library has this on their shelf of books recommended by staff, so I decided to try it. It's an interest story about the awkward relationship between 2 very different high school girls.

Jesse is a lesbian who is out to her parents, who are both former activists (they met when they were being fingerprinted after being arrested at a protest). She is admittedly off-beat, cutting her hair with a Swiss Army knife and wearing b*tt-ugly green fisherman's boots every day. She is the sole member of the...more Our library has this on their shelf of books recommended by staff, so I decided to try it. It's an interest story about the awkward relationship between 2 very different high school girls.

Jesse is a lesbian who is out to her parents, who are both former activists (they met when they were being fingerprinted after being arrested at a protest). She is admittedly off-beat, cutting her hair with a Swiss Army knife and wearing b*tt-ugly green fisherman's boots every day. She is the sole member of the National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos (NOLAW) and prints manifestos about how the in-crowd should be more accepting of the students on the fringe.

She attends the fall dance in a guy's tux (and the fishing boots) and meets Emily, her polar opposite. She is a hardworking over-achiever, with her time taken up with being student body vice president, library assistant, apprentice nursing program, studying Chinese, etc. She also has a boyfriend she has literally known her whole life, but somehow she and Jesse wind up kissing in the girl's bathroom.

A year later, they still met clandestinely to kiss a couple of times per week working around Emily's schedule. No one else knows, including Emily's boyfriend. Despite Jesse's attempts to take things further, kissing is as far as it goes. Then Emily manages to talk her way into an internship with StarMart (WalMart look-alike). They were rebuffed in their initial attempt to build in this small town but are looking to regroup and try again. Emily suggests they buy goodwill by sponsoring the upcoming school fall dance and the athletic programs.

When word gets out, Jesse and Emily find themselves on opposite sides of the issue. Jesse sees the loss of local small businesses and sweatshop jobs overseas. She joins a girl named Esther in mobilizing local protests against StarMart. Emily sees the financial benefits to the school (she's in charge of the dance) and their corporate donations to developing countries. Neither wants to hurt the other but they're also not willing to conceed on their beliefs. Can their secret relationship survive, or is it even worth trying given the gulf that has come between them?

A little heavy on the anti-WalMart side. Jesse's side's arguments are always treated as rational, whereas Emily (and the school principal) only focus on how much the school is going to get out of the deal. In addition, Jesse's best friend's father is a corporate shill who is totally derogatory and insulting to Jesse and her group's concerns.(less)

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Sep 21, 2012 Tori rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: lesbian, lgbt, decent-ya, probably-won-t-read-again, disappointed

I really did mostly like The Difference Between You and Me. There were some things that struck me as a little bit strange from the beginning. The book is told in alternating chapters, mostly from the main character's points of view. Jesse's chapters are told exclusively in third person (albeit a very close third person, so close that I sometimes forgot it was third at all) and Emily's chapters are exclusively first person. Weird, but okay. The premise - that a closeted, preppy student council gi...more I really did mostly like The Difference Between You and Me. There were some things that struck me as a little bit strange from the beginning. The book is told in alternating chapters, mostly from the main character's points of view. Jesse's chapters are told exclusively in third person (albeit a very close third person, so close that I sometimes forgot it was third at all) and Emily's chapters are exclusively first person. Weird, but okay. The premise - that a closeted, preppy student council girl and the resident school lesbian freak have been making out for ages - was cute, and enough like my high school fantasy life that I was happy to play along.

On a superficial level, the novel answered most of my expectations very well. The characters were sometimes obnoxious, but in a very honest way. The characters were actually my favorite thing about the story. They were all obviously trying very hard, in the really slow, painful way that we all try really hard and don't always succeed when we're fifteen or raising a fifteen-year-old. That aspect, of trying and grasping for something but never quite reaching it, felt very sincere to me, and in my opinion carried the novel. This is very much focused around two (or three) high school sophomores and a freshman. I like YA, so that's okay, but I suspect that someone who doesn't would very quickly get tired of the awkward parental discussions and such.

Generally speaking, it was a little bit funny, a little bit awkward, and all of the characters were trying so hard that I couldn't help but root for them. I'd be lying if I didn't say I didn't enjoy it.

But, on any more than a superficial level, there were a lot of aspects of the book that just didn't work for me.

Unlike a lot of people, I didn't dislike Emily. I do think that putting her chapters in first person did an enormous disservice to the character. Emily is tightly-wound, high-strung and over-achieving to all possible extremes. First person not only brings out her many annoying qualities, but it doesn't let us see very much of who Emily is as a person. This is a girl who spends an awful lot of time lying to herself, so of course she uses her monologues to try to convince us of that. I think another very very tight third person PoV would have cut down on the annoyance issues, and given us more of a sense of the reality of her life. Honestly, we know more about Jesse's two friends' lives than Emily's, which is painful when Emily is supposed to be a protagonist.

Which is really the main problem I have: George never really commits to Emily. This is really Jesse's journey, which is fine except that (view spoiler)[her journey seems to mostly involve that everything about her relationship with Emily has been bad for her. Very early on, Emily makes it clear that she thinks all of Jesse's political ranting is "insanity," and that mostly they can't talk because they don't agree on anything. It feels like I just read a tale of how Jesse got in with a bad crowd and worked her way out. When really, I was never worried about Jesse, who is out, grounded, more or less aware of what she wants, and has parents (and friends) who support her and to whom she really can talk if she needs to. I was worried about Emily, who is endlessly hard on herself, puts everyone's needs above her own (except, apparently, Jesse's) and doesn't really have anywhere to be safe and honest.

Some of this might be a difference in expectation. I'd hoped that "CAN THEIR RELATIONSHIP SURVIVE THEIR POLITICAL DIFFERENCES" would result in a novel about their figuring out how to be together despite those things. When Emily said they had nothing in common, I was hoping that maybe they'd find things, or discover things about each other to bond over. I was really hoping for young love overcoming all odds. This was, frankly, the lesbian book that I checked out of the library because I didn't expect that any of the other ones I got would be happy.

And then the response to "CAN WE SURVIVE THESE DIFFERENCES" is just "no, I don't think so." Emily says they have nothing in common except kissing, and at the end that's still true. Jesse suspects her family will hate Emily, and they do. It's like they had this opportunity to overcome the odds, and then they decided it wasn't worth the effort. It might be realistic, and maybe they were just doomed to failure, but it was still very different from what I'd hoped it might be.

I'm disappointed, I guess. I feel like there was so much more they could have overcome, if they were willing to try. And I'm sick of watching gay characters finish out their stories single, dead, or straight. (hide spoiler)](less)

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Jul 13, 2012 Kiwi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was meant as a throw-back to my various times of reading any sort of remotely lesbian literature I could find, especially if it included teenagers and/or baby-dykes. This one certainly hit the bill. I loved that it wasn't a coming out story; I've certainly read plenty of those, especially with teenage casts. It was lovely to read about a lesbian in high school who had been out for years--I don't read about that quite as often and I always love to because it's my story too, having come out a...more This was meant as a throw-back to my various times of reading any sort of remotely lesbian literature I could find, especially if it included teenagers and/or baby-dykes. This one certainly hit the bill. I loved that it wasn't a coming out story; I've certainly read plenty of those, especially with teenage casts. It was lovely to read about a lesbian in high school who had been out for years--I don't read about that quite as often and I always love to because it's my story too, having come out at 13/14 (bisexual-and-then-gay).

I enjoyed the tale enough. It felt very high school in that not much actually seemed to be going on--let's face it, many high school experiences aren't extraordinarily plotty--but that it felt like a lot, with all these new feelings and realisations. It felt really organic for Jesse to be going from this activist-without-a-cause (not that Standing Up for the Weirdos isn't a cause, it's just not a very particular one, especially in high school) into an organised activist actually helping to host events. (And again, that may hit home for me because I went through a similar growth experience, although a bit earlier on.)

I was thrown by Jesse's POV being in third-person while Emily and Esther's were in first. Esther's, at least, I enjoyed; Emily's drove me mad. (Having been more of a Jesse in school with no extra attraction to the Emily's, that sort of POV does have the tendency to vex me.) That said, I have come across more high-school-preppy characters that I've come to like anyway; Emily just drove me mad. She seemed set on ignorance and tried to flat-out manipulate Jesse; despite talking about being "soul mates" and things like that, she didn't seem to have much regard for Jesse at all when it came down to it.

I quite enjoyed Esther, though, even if she was just another obvious stereotype. She was another one that I related to--I'm sort of an Esther/Jesse cross, and have been since mid-sophomore year (prior to that I was just a Jesse). I found her unflappable and quirky nature endearing. I loved her interactions with Jesse.

Wyatt, as another stereotype, made me laugh; I had a Wyatt of my own once upon a time.

Jesse's parents were glorious. I loved the bonding scenes over the bird-house, both her father and her mother.

I wasn't as disappointed with the little-wrapped-up ending as I thought I would be. I would have liked to have known if their campaign against the Big Evil Corporation (which I kept reading as StarMarket instead of StarMart :B) was successful - but that would have dragged the book out for another long time. I liked seeing Jesse break it off with Emily without seeing if any new sort of relationship would form between Jesse and Esther (and I would be pleased either way). It's also very high school to have things NOT come together in this perfectly rounded story arc, so I didn't mind reading it that way.

In the end it was a nice, quick and easy read with some substance and tender moments tucked inside even with the stereotypes, tropes and eye-rolling dialect. It's not a book I would go tell all my friends to read pronto, but if I saw one pick it up randomly and start flipping through, I'd smile.(less)

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Jan 28, 2013 Lynne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel, young-adult, realistic-fiction

This is the story of Jesse, a high school girl who cuts her hair with a knife and wears ugly rubber boots, and Emily, the pretty blonde student council officer in the cardigan, who seem to be as different as night and day but are strangely attracted to each other. At first the characters in this story seemed to me to be falling into one-dimensional stereotypes, and I thought I could see where the story was going. But I kept reading because of the glowing comments from Laurie Halse Anderson - if...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Gretchen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen

So first of all, this book was not bad. I legitimately liked the first half of it. Then, about halfway through, this book turned into a big pity party for the poor misunderstood liberals, and a rant on conservatives. Conservatives are not evil! Howard might be severely wrong in his views, and certainly StarMart isn't trying to help people in Honduras and Guatemala, but that doesn't mean that they are bad through and through. I hated the dialogue about "defeating" StarMart. You can't "defeat" it,...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Brian Kelley rated it 1 of 5 stars

Ever struggle reading a book? (Silly question, I know.)

I am struggling with a YA book right now, and typically I find something to latch onto in most YA books and do not struggle reading them at all.

Right now, The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George has become a chore...a yoke... at 118 pages into it. My struggle is in the writing, and not in the story. The story carries a lot of promise, and I don't know, maybe I am just being too "old" or too snobby about books when I say the wri...more Ever struggle reading a book? (Silly question, I know.)

I am struggling with a YA book right now, and typically I find something to latch onto in most YA books and do not struggle reading them at all.

Right now, The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George has become a chore...a yoke... at 118 pages into it. My struggle is in the writing, and not in the story. The story carries a lot of promise, and I don't know, maybe I am just being too "old" or too snobby about books when I say the writing is leaving me unfulfilled, unchallenged.

The only way I can categorize it is to provide an example. The following passage is representative of the entire book which feels like an adult tried too hard to write the way teens speak and think--it reads awkwardly:
Afterward I was, like, shaking. For a second, right after I put the phone, I thought I might throw up. I hate letting people down. It's my least favorite thing in the world. My mom was so sweet to me about it, though--she made me tea and sat with me on the couch and reminded me that this experience was actually really good practice for me.
I am around teenagers year-olds for a living, and have been in some capacity since 1993. I feel like every teen-adult stereotype is just jammed into that little passage from page 119. Well, image that over the previous 118 pages. Honestly, I expect more out of YA literature and most of the time the writing is there. I am just not connecting with this writing style. As a reader I wonder if this author is around young people much at all.

What nags me, however, is the fact that this author is attacking a subject worthy of being written about-changing the world. Because it addresses several issues in a healthy way, I want to like the book. I want to recommend the book.

Further complicating matters...

Emblazoned across the top of the book jacket is a quote from YA author Laurie Halse Anderson which reads, "Achingly honest and empowering."

YA author Maureen Johnson says "The difference between you and me is different--and complicated, and romantic, and fun."

And YA author Robin McKinley calls it "dazzingly good."

So, listen, maybe it is me. Maybe I am being too stuffy and narrow-minded. Because of that, I am going to dive in again this morning and give it another hour of my time. If it doesn't improve over the next 59 minutes or so I may exercise my right as a reader that I rarely invoke.

The right to put a book down. Forever.
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Oct 26, 2012 Erin Stuhlsatz rated it 4 of 5 stars

My biggest problem with The Difference Between You and Me is that it was too short! I finished the book, then spent the rest of the day waiting to get back to it and hear what happens next between Jesse and Emily, and whether NorthStar does get to build its new StarMart in town.

Jesse is the school's lesbian. She writes manifestos to try to convince the student body to accept everybody, with limited success. She also secretly makes out with Emily, the student council vice president, practically p...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Elizabeth K. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-new-reads

I liked this book okay, but it was one of those things where for a long time I thought I was reading a different book.

What happens in this book: Jesse, an out yet very awkward and geeky and mostly a loner high school junior, is having a clandestine relationship with Emily, a popular student council type with a jock boyfriend. Jesse's parents are politically radical, liberal type folks, and this (I guess) makes it seem natural when she becomes friends with another girl at school, Esther, who is p...more I liked this book okay, but it was one of those things where for a long time I thought I was reading a different book.

What happens in this book: Jesse, an out yet very awkward and geeky and mostly a loner high school junior, is having a clandestine relationship with Emily, a popular student council type with a jock boyfriend. Jesse's parents are politically radical, liberal type folks, and this (I guess) makes it seem natural when she becomes friends with another girl at school, Esther, who is passionately, and also geeky but comfortable with it, into social justice issues. Esther and Jesse join forces to protest the plans of a large box store (not named Walmart but it's Walmart, I imagine) to move into their small town. This pits them against Emily, who is trying to get the box store company to sponsor high school activities. The chapters rotate through the points of view of Jesse, Esther, and Emily.

What I thought this book was going to be about: for some reason, maybe the title, for a long time into it, I was thinking this book was going to be about differences, and even the painful realization that it's possible other people have different views, opinions, and interests, and are in different places in their development, that present challenges to a relationship and that sometimes these differences are insurmountable. (view spoiler)(less)

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Aug 17, 2012 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars

I adore Jesse and her growth into her own skin. She reminds me much of my ex. At the beginning of the book she was content with being Emily's secret Tuesday hook-up date, and grew to respect herself more, and she gained the respect of those around her.

Emily however, was so robotic and unfeeling I hated reading her chapters. For a book written in alternating perspectives, hating at least half of the book isn't good. Jesse thinks incredibly highly of Emily and fully believes she loves Emily. For...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Ciara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kids-books, read-in-2012

this is YA. i probably would have been really into it when i was in junior high, & it would probably be a good read for a young teenager now. especially if that teenager is kind of alternative & political & maybe exploring her sexuality a little bit. the main protagonist here is a punky boot-wearing shit-stirrer who makes anonymous manifestos celebrating freakdom & posts them up all over school. her lefty lawyer parents are very supportive of their special snowflake, including he...more this is YA. i probably would have been really into it when i was in junior high, & it would probably be a good read for a young teenager now. especially if that teenager is kind of alternative & political & maybe exploring her sexuality a little bit. the main protagonist here is a punky boot-wearing shit-stirrer who makes anonymous manifestos celebrating freakdom & posts them up all over school. her lefty lawyer parents are very supportive of their special snowflake, including her interest in other girls. but they don't know that she kind of has a girlfriend, & that girlfriend is the preppy boyfriend-having president of the student council. they have a standing tuesday afternoon make-out date at the local library where the preppy girl is a page.

weirdo girl kind of hates herself for being so drawn to preppy girl, especially because preppy girl has a boyfriend & refuses to tell anyone about their little arrangement. but anyone who has ever been 14 remembers what it was like. the heart wants what it wants, even when it makes you feel like crap.

weirdo girls gets busted flyering & is put in detention for defacing the school. she meets another weirdo girl in detention, but this girl is kind of the real deal in terms of being a political agitator. she has more of a mid-90s cat-eye glasses riot grrrl vintage things going on, & she spends every saturday morning standing silent vigil downtown with some old-school hippie friends. (like seriously old-school. so old-school they are driven there on the senior bus from the nursing home.) weirdo girl's mom of course thinks her daughter is dating vintage political girl (sorry i don't remember any of these character's names).

& then a huge corporation more or less modeled after wal-mart wants to move in. vintage political girl is of course against it & weirdo girl is like, "hmmm, why? even though i pride myself of my weirdness, i actually know fuck-all." once political girl fills her in, weirdo girl is also against the company, & together, they start a petition against it. but preppy girl is not only all for it because she's bought all the propaganda about how it's a job creator, but she's even working for the company via this really illegal-sounding internship thing & has invited the company to sponsor the school dance. the fir proceeds to fly.

my main critique of the book is that all of the characters are kind of broadly-drawn archetypes without a lot of nuance. & i didn't really care for weirdo girl that much. for all the effort she puts into her goofy flyers, it really bothers me how little she is able to think for herself. i would have preferred to just read a book about vintage political girl & her saturday morning vigil, even though i think vigils like that are really tiresome. but the target audience for the book would likely be more forgiving, & i think it's cool that more YA books now feature more interesting queer characters.(less)

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Jul 15, 2012 readknitread rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: lgbtq, high-school-reads, realistic-fiction

Told from mainly from two points of view.
Jesse: out and proud, is okay with her "freak" status and wants to make freaks considered "normal". Great character! I love how she has her own style and readers can relate to her story of "I love someone who makes me hate myself."

Emily: closet bi-sexual and popular-student-council-ambitious high school student. Doesn't consider kissing Jesse cheating on her boyfriend. I feel like the author wanted the reader to hate this character. She doesn't give her...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Liviania rated it 4 of 5 stars

Madeleine George's sophomore book shifts between three points of view. It's a little distracting at first since both Emily and Esther's sections are told in first person and Jesse's is in third. But George's writing keeps the transition from being too jarring.

Jesse Halberstam is out and proud. She goes around the school in an awful pair of boots and a homemade haircut hanging up posters with her manifesto for the liberation of weirdos. But she has a secret. Every Tuesday she meets Emily Miller a...more Madeleine George's sophomore book shifts between three points of view. It's a little distracting at first since both Emily and Esther's sections are told in first person and Jesse's is in third. But George's writing keeps the transition from being too jarring.

Jesse Halberstam is out and proud. She goes around the school in an awful pair of boots and a homemade haircut hanging up posters with her manifesto for the liberation of weirdos. But she has a secret. Every Tuesday she meets Emily Miller at the library to make out. Emily's in the closet and staying there. She even has a boyfriend, Mike McDade. Meanwhile, Jesse meets Esther Meinz in detention and the two join forces in activism.

StarMart wants to put a store in their town. They're having trouble getting land, so they're trying to put pressure on the town to let them end. That includes funding the Vander High School's dance and athletic programs. Emily, the student council vice president, orchestrated the corporate sponsorship. Jesse and Emily may be in love, but the closet and their opposing political views are tearing them apart.

At times I thought Esther's point of view wasn't needed, but I thought the character was very important to the story. Everyone thinks she and Jesse are together, but neither of them show any sign of being interested. In fact, her sexuality is never discussed. She and Jesse are simply friends, and as Esther never brings her dating life up, it's none of Jesse's business. They connect in plenty of other ways, including their experiences with each of their mother's breast cancer.

I loved Jesse's relationship with her parents. Fran and Arthur pay attention to their daughter and are their to scold her when she gets in trouble. It's quite a change from the usual absentee parents in young adult novels. But even better, Jesse says things she shouldn't to her parents. She's fifteen, she's frustrated, and it is so hard to relate to your parents at that age.

I thought THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ME was a terrific book about adolescence and making a difference. And for all the romance fans out there, there are some very swoony scenes. And the final manifesto, about doing small things in big groups, made me feel better about only pledging a quarter per hour. If all book bloggers worked together, we could make a difference in worldwide literacy and access to books. (less)

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May 06, 2012 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bullies, families, ncbla2013, romance, school, self-esteem, teachers

For the past year, Jesse Halberstam, a rubber-boot-wearing social renegade, and Emily Miller, a J. Crew-sweater-wearing Student Council vice president, have been meeting every Tuesday for torrid makeout sessions in the library. Emily has a long-time boyfriend and insists on keeping the relationship a secret despite the fact that Jesse arouses her in a way that Michael, her boyfriend, fails to do. Then, too, worried about what others will say, Emily barely acknowledges Jesse in the high school ha...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Alex M. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, young-adult, queer

I would maybe rate this actually somewhere between two and three stars, though it's hard to say. It's a quick read and I don't feel like very much happened, but as we know, I am a sucker for all books about baby dykes.

The blurb makes this sound like a love story, which it is not. And the trend of baby dykes falling in love with closeted straight girls is so sad and heartbreaking. Also, I am ALWAYS way more curious about the closeted straight girls than I am about the characters who are out. Or,...more I would maybe rate this actually somewhere between two and three stars, though it's hard to say. It's a quick read and I don't feel like very much happened, but as we know, I am a sucker for all books about baby dykes.

The blurb makes this sound like a love story, which it is not. And the trend of baby dykes falling in love with closeted straight girls is so sad and heartbreaking. Also, I am ALWAYS way more curious about the closeted straight girls than I am about the characters who are out. Or, at least, to some degree. I LOVED Cameron Post, but I wanted to know what happened to Coley. Badly. Just, being so closeted must be the worst and it must be so hard to struggle with that and I am interested in it...maybe I'll have to write that book though.

Anyway, Jesse is this young, out lesbian who wears combat boots and hates the Man. Emily is VP of the student council, wears J. Crew sweaters, and is generally as straight as you can get. Every week they make out in the handicapped bathroom at the local library. But then Jesse gets involved in a political cause that Emily is on the other side of and the two of them have to deal with it.

(view spoiler)(less)

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Apr 02, 2012 Paula Gallagher rated it 3 of 5 stars

I would be more inclined to give this one 2 1/2 stars. While this seems to be more Jesse's story, the chapters belonging to her are told in the third person. Jesse's the manifesto-writing paper-the-school lesbian activist-wannabe looking for equal human rights and acceptance. She's flawed, interesting and likable. Her downfall is the fair Emily, the overachieving student council vice president with a long term boyfriend. Emily gets to speak to the reader in the first person, and tell us all abou...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

The cover featured here is so different from the cover on my copy of the book. Wow. (I don't like either of them, actually.)

I have mixed feelings about this book. What I liked: it's a fast, enjoyable read with an empowering ending. A couple of the characters, particularly Jesse, ended up being more complex than I initially anticipated. Jesse's parents are present and positively involved in her life. The themes of the book (for example: being true to yourself) are age appropriate. TDBYAM is not...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Richie Partington rated it 5 of 5 stars

Richie's Picks: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ME by Madeleine George, Viking, March 2012, 272p., ISBN: 978-0-670-01128-5

"Light a candle, curse the glare"
-- Hunter/Garcia

"'This is a conversation,' Jesse's father says, 'about what happened at school today.'
"'I don't really feel like having a conversation about what happened at school today,' Jesse shrugs.
"'Well, you're gonna,' snaps her mother. Jesse's father lays a restraining hand lightly on his wife's arm.
"'Sweetheart,' he says to Jesse, 'It'...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was really unsure of what to do with this book. My main complaint is that it is written by someone who doesn't seem to value gender conformity much. But, she is still using words such as "mannning". Why are we manning stations when we could be staffing stations? I do not understand.

Parts of this book I loved, and parts of it just made me feel awkward. I saw myself in the main character quite a bit, and then in other parts not so much. I think because I didn't date anyone in high school and was...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Ab rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: queer-lit, ya-ness

Ok, so I think I'm ready to review this book. I needed to get some space away from it, first. I guess it just pissed me off, more than anything. In Madeleine George fashion, the chapters alternate perspectives between main characters, much like "Looks". My problem with this book was just how crappy Jesse gets treated over and over again, and how oblivious Emily is to everything taking an ounce of brains/intelligence/common sense. I KNOW people get treated badly every day; I KNOW it's hard to be...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books, kids-ya

The Difference Between You and Me is a queer high school story that isn't a coming-out story: Jesse Halberstam is a sophomore, and she's already been out as a lesbian for a year. She gets harassed at school because she's out and gay and butch and wears big clompy rubber fisherman's boots all the time. But that's not the center of the story, either. Jesse has a delicious secret: she's been having an ongoing affair (which involves hot make-out sessions in the out-of-the-way/never-used 3rd-floor ha...more The Difference Between You and Me is a queer high school story that isn't a coming-out story: Jesse Halberstam is a sophomore, and she's already been out as a lesbian for a year. She gets harassed at school because she's out and gay and butch and wears big clompy rubber fisherman's boots all the time. But that's not the center of the story, either. Jesse has a delicious secret: she's been having an ongoing affair (which involves hot make-out sessions in the out-of-the-way/never-used 3rd-floor handicapped restroom at the town public library) with Emily, who's a junior. There's a problem, though: Emily has a boyfriend, and isn't out as bi, if she even is bi: "I just don't believe in labels of any kind," she says. "Nowadays people can just be who they are, they don't have to define themselves in words" (17). Which is fine, when you pass as "normal" and don't have to deal with other people's labels and judgments of you. Emily insists that Jesse keep their relationship a secret, and barely acknowledges Jesse in public, but Jesse's so smitten (and the kissing is so good) that she goes along with it.

But the desire they have for one another is basically the only thing Jesse and Emily have in common: Jesse papers the school with manifestos for her one person organization, NOLAW (National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos), and Emily is the student-council vice-president whose pet project, this year, is getting corporate sponsorship for the school's athletic teams and dances. The biggest sponsor Emily finds, and the one she's proudest of, is NorthStar Enterprises, a huge multinational corporation with a local office. NorthStar owns a chain of Walmart-like big-box retail stores, and also a chain of Sam's Club-like retail warehouse clubs—and they're trying to open a big-box store on the outskirts of town. When Jesse meets a freshman girl named Esther who's an anti-war activist, the two of them end up working together to oppose NorthStar/StarMart—and as Jesse speaks up against corporate badness, she also finds herself speaking up to Emily about how their "relationship" has been pretty shitty for her, delicious kissing aside.

The book is told in alternating chapters—mostly alternating between Jesse and Emily, though there are some chapters centered on Esther, too. The style is a little weird, because Jesse's chapters are in the third person, while both Emily and Esther get first-person narration. The first chapter of the book, which is centered on Jesse, felt a little clunky or overwritten: Emily is putting her hair up, "quick as a samurai," opening her hand "wide as a starfish" to put a hair elastic around her ponytail (8). And Jesse's so entranced that it's "like watching a Cirque du Soleil gymnast flip ten times through the air and stick the landing" (9). Why is that "Cirque du Soleil" in there, why not just "gymnast"? Wouldn't Cirque du Soleil performers be more likely to be called "acrobats"? (OK, maybe I'm extra-critical on that particular topic.) The good news is, either things got less clunky or I got into the story enough not to care. And even in that first chapter there were great moments: I love this, about Jesse running into Emily and two other girls who are talking and doing their hair in the bathroom:

It's like there's a mirror Emily on either side of the real Emily: hoodie hoodie hoodie, jeans jeans jeans, ponytail ponytail ponytail. In the center of the triptych, Emily stands looking at Jesse with terrible blankness, a perfectly placid unrecognition. It's like she's never seen Jesse before and doesn't much care that she's seeing her now. (10)

Also great: this description from Emily of her boyfriend's kissing vs. Jesse's kissing:

It's not his fault. He just gets really excited, like a dog. Like a sweet, slobbery golden retriever.
When Jesse Halberstam kisses me, she's really focused and really intense. She puts her hands on the sides of my face to hold me where she wants me, or she winds her fingers up in my hair and tugs it tight, and somehow, just by the way she touches me, she makes my mouth open, she makes my eyes close, she makes me breathe faster and faster until I feel dizzy and think I might black out. (21)

Emily mostly comes off as pretty unlikable, but when she's talking about desire, and even once when she's talking about how she revels in the secrecy of her relationship with Jesse, she's more appealing. And there are occasionally hilarious moments even when she's being unlikable, like when she's going on about how totally great it is that she has an unpaid internship at NorthStar: snort:

The whole office is decorated with this series of beautiful framed posters with photographs of tranquil nature scenes above poetic messages about doing your best work and making the most of your opportunities. The one right above my desk has a picture of three flying geese silhouetted against this huge, violet-colored moon rising over a lake, and underneath the picture it says YOU CAN SOAR ONLY AS HIGH AS YOU BELIEVE THE SKY TO BE. I wrote this down on a Post-it note and stuck it on the inside cover of my homework journal for inspiration. (121-122)

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Feb 22, 2012 Jen Tucker rated it 4 of 5 stars

In full disclosure, an advance review copy was sent to me to read and review through goodreads.

When I first saw the cover of Madeleine George's book I thought, "Oh how cute! A teen girl falls in love with an 'outdoorsy' guy." I was wrong. It is the story of Jess and Emily and their relationship that they are keeping quiet from the rest of the world; including Emily's boyfriend. Jess is always at the ready to battle social issues, "Corporate America" and judgmental humanity from seeping into her...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Sarah added it

Shelves: young-adult, lgbtq, contemporary

Fantastic voice, lovely writing. Definitely a must-read if you are particularly interested in queer YA; highly recommended in general to readers of contemporary YA.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ME, as the title aptly suggests, is a character-driven novel. Three girls tell the story in revolving perspectives: Jesse, guerrilla crusader for the outsiders and the weirdos, who, with her fisherman's boots and home-cut short hair, is often mistaken as a boy at first glance; Emily, student council VP w...more Fantastic voice, lovely writing. Definitely a must-read if you are particularly interested in queer YA; highly recommended in general to readers of contemporary YA.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ME, as the title aptly suggests, is a character-driven novel. Three girls tell the story in revolving perspectives: Jesse, guerrilla crusader for the outsiders and the weirdos, who, with her fisherman's boots and home-cut short hair, is often mistaken as a boy at first glance; Emily, student council VP with perfect hair, a perfect boyfriend, and plans for how her future will go (good job, marriage and kids with said boyfriend); and Esther, dedicated political activist and Joan of Arc fangirl. Jesse and Emily have a secret: they've been making out in secret for the past year. Jesse, who is openly gay, is ashamed about the secrecy of the relationship, and has told no one about it, not even her best friend, Wyatt. Emily is wildly attracted to Jesse but maintains that no one can know: she is a public figure in school and in the community, and there are certain things she just cannot do -- dating a girl, one of them.

George's unconventional use of perspective is a key aspect of the novel. Emily's intimate first-person narrative, together with her frequent appeals to reason, encourage the reader's empathy and, one might say, complicity, with her argument in favor of the closet. (That she and Jesse meet in the actual closet-like space of a bathroom reinforces this connection.) Emily, however, is not the villain of the story, and George never preaches against closeting. Nevertheless, with the increasing use of Jesse's perspective as the novel progresses and the plot itself, it becomes clear that the closet is not right for her. Between Jesse and Esther's local activism, Wyatt's relationship with his father, and Jesse and Emily's relationship, the novel portrays a series of moral dilemmas; and if the use of perspective frames the story, structurally, almost as a dialectic, George accomplishes this gently, never didactically, leaving the reader to draw her own conclusions. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ME is a masterful example of a book that deals with important issues, but never comes close to being an issue book.(less)

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Feb 04, 2012 Abby Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jesse lives for Tuesday afternoons, slipping into the third-floor accessible bathroom at the library and meeting Emily on her break from work. Emily lives for Tuesday afternoons, the one time she can be with Jesse, not worrying about what student council or her friends or her boyfriend would think about her if they knew. Jesse and Emily come from different worlds - Jesse is out and proud, Emily is a closeted girly girl - but when they're together, none of that seems to matter. But when Emily app...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adults, queer-content

A dang fine read. Picked it up to start it before going to bed, stayed up until it was done!

Fantastic use of multiple narrators. When I finished one chapter, I wanted to hear more about that character, so I'd read through the other character's chapter but then get hooked on that storyline, so then I'd read through the other character's chapter.... And so on. It was impossible to put down.

I felt it was a little Jesse-focused, so it isn't a true split. The Esther chapters felt especially light an...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: lgbt, ya-fiction

Jesse is the out-and-proud daughter of activist parents who papers the school with "manifestos" from her "organization" (of which she is the only member), NOLAW (National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos). Emily is a J. Crew sweater-wearing, student council vice president with the same boyfriend she's had since eighth grade. According to the laws of high school, they should never interact with one another. But they've been hooking up in the bathroom of the library every Tuesday afternoon dur...more Jesse is the out-and-proud daughter of activist parents who papers the school with "manifestos" from her "organization" (of which she is the only member), NOLAW (National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos). Emily is a J. Crew sweater-wearing, student council vice president with the same boyfriend she's had since eighth grade. According to the laws of high school, they should never interact with one another. But they've been hooking up in the bathroom of the library every Tuesday afternoon during Emily's breaks from work for a year. The two share passionate feelings for each other but have almost nothing else in common. The few times they've tried to talk about each other's interests, they've been disgusted with one another. Jesse has gotten to the point where she doesn't want to hide anymore. She wants their relationship to be public, and for the two girls not to have to ignore each other in the halls of their high school. But Emily doesn't want to. She loves her longtime boyfriend, Michael, even though his kisses are gross and slobbery. She also doesn't want to complicate her position as student council vice president and all of the activities she's involved with.

Things start to get even more complicated. Jesse meets freshman Esther, another activist who idolizes Joan of Arc. Jesse and Esther start campaigning against StarMart, a big-box chain store that will drive out the local, family-owned businesses. Emily, however, has spearheaded a campaign for the school to receive funds from corporations.. including StarMart's parent company.

It takes a long time for the action to develop in The Difference Between You and Me; in fact, I think that it's a little misleading that the whole StarMart plot is even mentioned on the book jacket summary at all, because Jesse doesn't even get involved in the fight against StarMart until at least halfway through the book. I don't mind all the time spent setting the scene, because it's an interesting scenario and the characters are mostly well-drawn, and just this side of cliche. You often read about uptight parents who disapprove of their children's dating choices, so it was pretty interesting to read about Jesse being afraid to tell her parents about Emily because she was so straight-and-narrow. I thought that the character development of Esther (of the three girls) was the weakest because she didn't seem very nuanced. It was also interesting that Esther was referred to by several characters as a potential love interest for Jesse (even if Jesse didn't see it that way), but her sexual orientation was never stated. An odd narrative choice is that Jesse, Emily, and Esther all narrate alternating chapters, but Emily and Esther's are first person and Jesse's are third person. In all, The Difference Between You and Me is well-written, and a thoughtful mix of fun and serious without being too heavy.

Ages 15+(less)

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Mar 08, 2012 Crystal Holder rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes in life opposites attract. This is certainly the case with Jesse and Emily. Jesse is an outspoken rebel with a cause and Emily is the popular student council vice president. One encounter in a dimly lit bathroom is all it takes for these girls to come together and realize their attraction for one another. This could be the start to a great love story, if not for the fact that Emily wants to keep the relationship where it started, in the bathroom. The difference between you and me is a...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Carly Thompson rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, ya, glbt

Realistic Teen fiction. Jesse considers herself a weirdo (she is a butch lesbian) and spends her days papering her high school with manifestos, hanging out with her gay best friend, and secretly making out in the library's bathroom with Emily, the vice-president of the student council--a preppy blonde who looks like she belongs on a CW show. Emily wants to keep the relationship a secret and when the girls find themselves on opposite sides of a debate over a big box store (StarMart), things begin...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George

How I heard about the book: I was wandering my library and this little one caught my eye.

Summary: (from Goodreads)
"Jesse cuts her own hair with a Swiss Army knife. She wears big green fisherman's boots. She's the founding (and only) member of NOLAW, the National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos. Emily wears sweaters with faux pearl buttons. She's vice president of the student council. She has a boyfriend.

These two girls have nothing in com...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Minna rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2-stars, disappointing, glbt, inconsistent, meh, young-adult, unappealing-characters

I'd say 2 1/2 stars. I have positive feelings towards this book, but in the end, it was just okay. I found it hard to believe that someone who was so political and justice-driven would let herself be trampled by Emily, and then knowing how it felt would turn around and be such a bad friend to Wyatt (and to a lesser extent, even to Esther). Emily I did not care for, she came across as very selfish (and as another reviewer has said, very Tracy Flick-from-Election-like.) My favorite character was J...more

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May 04, 2013 Naomi Klayman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nothing like a fresh, intelligent, funny, and sympathetic young adult novel to lift the spirits. Like many of its genre, this one is about being true to yourself, but what sets it apart is the sympathetic portrayal of ALL the characters, even (especially) the Stepford-like over-achiever who's too self-absorbed to see the truth in front of her eyes: she's gay & she's being played. (Don't worry, these aren't spoilers, they are revealed early as part of the plot.) From the teens to the parents...more

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