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Jellicle Girl

by Stevie Mikayne (Goodreads Author)

4.64 of 5 stars 4.64 · rating details · 36 ratings · 14 reviews

When Beth met Jackie, she was fifteen and shy, living in the shadow of her mother: talented artist Heather Sarandon. Jackie—wilful, cheeky and confident, made Beth see things in herself that she'd never imagined, and do things she never thought she would. As memories of Beth's last night with Jackie grow more like waking nightmares, Beth does everything she can to forget t...more

Paperback, 234 pages

Published August 15th 2012 by Evolved Publishing

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Oct 28, 2012 Lupita rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was sent this eBook by Vicky from Novel Publicity. I thought that I was about to read something related to Halloween since the deadline for the review was the 31 of October. But I had an amazing surprise.

This book is amazing from serval points of view. As an avid reader I was please with such rich characters, a great plot and the different twist and topics approached by the author. Loved the inclusion of every one of the story-lines and characters, every single one was justified and successful...more I was sent this eBook by Vicky from Novel Publicity. I thought that I was about to read something related to Halloween since the deadline for the review was the 31 of October. But I had an amazing surprise.

This book is amazing from serval points of view. As an avid reader I was please with such rich characters, a great plot and the different twist and topics approached by the author. Loved the inclusion of every one of the story-lines and characters, every single one was justified and successfully developed along the book.

However as a psychologist, this book amazed me. So far I haven't had the pleasure of reading an author that could capture in such a vivid and perfect way the mind of a teenager that is experiencing difficult situations from different areas in her life. But overall I haven't found a book that detailed in a emotional and insightful way the anxiety and relief experience by people when they rely on self-harm to cope with the stress and overwhelming situations of their day.

Beth, the main character, is a troubled and very afraid teenager with too many losses in her life. The
lack of emotionally available parents and the death of the only person that she cared for made her put some distance between her and the world.

As part of the journey Beth is introduce to a group of people (Children mostly) that face bigger and deeper problems than Beth's. Although at the beginning she believes she won't learn anything important and she is there only for an school requirement, she starts to care for these children, even without her noticing. For instance when she was the victim of the "Pee prank" she decided to take all responsibility so no one gets send "Back to Zero".

A very interesting relationship is the one held between Beth and Nancy (The psychologist). In this case both of them ended up gaining something, Beth went into a road of recovery and understanding of her, her family, friends and the world; while Nancy was able to see that she was still in charge of some decisions of her life - i.e. when to stop getting medication and start dying.

Overall the book is amazing. I would recommended it to parents, teachers and teenagers. Is one ebook that makes me want to buy the hardcover version and keep it in my library.

(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 28, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book grips you from very first page, detailing a young girls desire to escape home and the life she lives. Beth is a feisty character whose desperation to transform into the Jellicle beauty leaves her at odds with herself and prone to anger and self harm. The way the book is written you can't help but be rooting for Beth and intrigued to find out why she doesn't have a close relationship with her parents, seems at odds with the world and discover who Jackie is and where did she go?
The answe...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 18, 2012 John Hines rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am not the target audience for this book. I'm a 42 year old male, married, with children older than the main character. And yet...

The writing is compelling. The author's voice is clear and consistent, and the sentences are truly works of art. The words paint a beautiful picture. Setting and scene are woven tightly into one another, making a seamless world in which the story takes place. And none of this matters in the least, because...

The characters are real, living people. I was torn between...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 05, 2012 Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 3, kindle, to-review

Jellicle Girl is the story of Beth an intelligent but self harming sixteen year old from a broken home. Managing to fast track to university she is forced to attend counselling to help with the early transition, she is reluctant to go and tries to put off the inevitable but once she finally makes the move she finds herself opening up to Nancy in a way she never realised she could. I found it to be a thought provoking book, watching Beth’s inner struggles as she works through difficult memories....more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 13, 2012 Pragya rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: 2012, own-kindle, review-request

3.5 stars

If you follow my blog, you would know I go into a book blindly. I don't read the back cover, the book blurb or any of the reviews/spoilers before diving into a book. Sometimes it has been a boon, at others, I have found myself in the midst of a book I'm not enjoying at all.

With this book also, I was taking a risk. I didn't even know what the book title meant. A lovely friend of mine, Vicky from Books, Biscuits and Tea was asking for readers for this book and I opted in.

And... I am glad...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 17, 2012 Emlyn Chand added it

Jellicle Girl is well done on every level, which is the highest compliment I can give to any book. The characterization? Flawless. The emotional resonance? Deep. The story line? Engaging. The writing? Oh, the writing! Written in a style that is reminiscent of Bernhard Schlink (best known for "The Reader"), Mikayne's prose is simple and accessible but still immensely powerful. The style feels effortless and not overwrought like many literary novels can become. Each word matters, each sentence con...more

6 likes · like · see review

Nov 06, 2012 Ciska rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Author
Stevie Mikayne holds a Master in Creative writing from the Lancaster University. She has worked part time in special education, finance and at the children's library. Currently she is a creative writing instructor at Algonquin College.

Review
I received this book in return for an honest review.
I just finished the book and am sitting here wondering what to write. I have some mixed feelings about this book and am going to try to write them down.
I think the author touched to many possible stor...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 21, 2012 Ana Popielnicki rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am in AWE. The depth and richness of the characters, the compelling flow of the story, the unbelievably masterful insight of human struggle, relationships, and pain. I have no words!

I am humbled by Ms. Mikayne's painting of life. Her words are incredibly powerful, beautiful, and so strong -- this book took my breath away, I literally forgot to breathe at some points. This is not a book, it is an experience. One cannot read it and not be affected.

One of my fellow reviewers said he wasn't the ta...more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 18, 2012 Eva Márquez rated it 5 of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS
Beth is a complicated teenager, but it doesn’t simply stop there. Beth’s life is complicated. Her mother, who she refers to as ‘Heather’ is dedicated to her art and is an absent mother for all intensive purposes. Beth’s father, who lives across town in an apartment, is a freelance photographer and is often overseas taking pictures of the Masai warriors in Kenya, photographing aquatic life in the Great Barrier Reef and therefore rarely occupies his apartment. A traumatic event (not to...more MY THOUGHTS
Beth is a complicated teenager, but it doesn’t simply stop there. Beth’s life is complicated. Her mother, who she refers to as ‘Heather’ is dedicated to her art and is an absent mother for all intensive purposes. Beth’s father, who lives across town in an apartment, is a freelance photographer and is often overseas taking pictures of the Masai warriors in Kenya, photographing aquatic life in the Great Barrier Reef and therefore rarely occupies his apartment. A traumatic event (not to be revealed in this review!) incites emotional conflict between Beth and her mother and the book starts with Beth describing leaving her mother’s house and deciding to move into her father’s apartment at the ripe age of 17. Beth practically lives completely alone in her father’s apartment, with no supervision, no human interaction, and no one to observe and intervene when she begins to spin out of control.

Beth has a secret. It’s not an outright obvious secret at first, but the author lets the reader in on that secret in a very gentle and unobtrusive way. Rather than revealing the secret in a climatic event in the book, we learn about Beth’s secret, the secret about herself that makes her feel wrong and abnormal, in a measured way. For open-minded readers, the secret will not come as a shock, nor will it seem like such a life-defining secret, but to the socially conservative reader, the secret will seem quite defining. Beth’s journey is an emotional one. The Jellicle Transformation is a deep and complex psychological coming of age story. The story is marvelously written, presenting great insight on the conflicted teenage psyche. For readers who enjoy reading about complex characters and experiencing their tumultuous and – at times – catalytic life events then I highly recommend reading this book!

MY FAVORITE PASSAGE
“Love makes you stronger because the two of you can face the world together; but relying on somebody so much that you can’t feel like a whole person without them makes you weak.” – Kindle location 1928-1929

Eva-Marquez.com(less)

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Oct 30, 2012 Katie Speralda rated it 5 of 5 stars

[Originally posted on Fiction Predictions]
I'll start small and easy. I've never read a lot of contemporary or realistic fiction (I'm more of a fantasy and sci-fi fan – but you've probably known this from my blog), but Jellicle Girl held my attention just as those magical worlds. But instead, this is a world inside the mind of a teenage girl, who Stevie Mikayne has described with (to use her own words) “searing insight”.

The pacing of the book was a bit slow at first. In fact, I was struggling thr...more [Originally posted on Fiction Predictions]
I'll start small and easy. I've never read a lot of contemporary or realistic fiction (I'm more of a fantasy and sci-fi fan – but you've probably known this from my blog), but Jellicle Girl held my attention just as those magical worlds. But instead, this is a world inside the mind of a teenage girl, who Stevie Mikayne has described with (to use her own words) “searing insight”.

The pacing of the book was a bit slow at first. In fact, I was struggling through the vague prologue. But then as Beth’s story started to unfold, I was pulled into her vast emotions.

Let’s talk more about Beth – after all, she is the main character, and this is a character-driven novel. Beth has a wrecked family life, a mother who is flat and cold, a father who is never home, and a summer gone terribly wrong. She is insecure and confused (though that would be the last word she described herself as).

Yet never in the whole book did she express the need to be taken care of. Even the readers (who she is telling the story to, in 1st person POV) are only privy to small pieces of the memories that is haunting her. This annoys me at first ("Can somebody, please, just tell me the story?"), but then it helps add to Beth's character, especially when all the pieces click into place. Beth is no role model, her “transformation” is not described as inspirational or instant, and that's what connected me to her the most: she could have been anybody - could have been me.

But I feel Jellicle Girl is not just about Beth. It’s about broken people, whose images focus under Beth’s point of view. Everybody in this book has their problems, and Beth’s relationship with them varies according to that: her mother, Nancy, Jackie, the list goes on. She loves some, she hates some, and she has a love-hate relationship with others. But they are all so realistic, so justifiable. As a matter of fact, her emotions felt so real that I, somebody who has never been in the same situation, has never done the things that she did, could feel just as strongly for her. I looked up Stevie Mikayne after I finished reading, and was surprised that somebody could have so much insight into a teenager’s mind, and depict it with such heart-breaking details.

My favorite thing about the book is how there was always an underlying part of sadness in the story, even in moments when Beth feels closest to happiness - which is usually extremely ephemeral. And I would have to say the synopsis doesn't do this theme justice. Frankly, I don't think it depicts the right theme and atmosphere of the story. But the cover of the book matches the plot perfectly, and it’s the kind of cover that brings more emotion to the book after reading.

Overall, Jellicle Girl was an amazing book, with deep emotional resonance. It’s not hard to read (although there are some occasional philosophical lines that you may want to reread and think about), yet conveys so much insight about the human mind. There are a few things that I didn't like: the pacing, for example, and sometimes the descriptions get too lengthy for my taste. But I would recommend this to everyone who enjoy realistic fictions, and especially to young adults.(less)

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Apr 07, 2013 David Gallagher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: gift, books-i-own, read-in-2013

I won this book in a recent giveaway, and I was quite glad since I'm not the winning type. The reason I entered the giveaway for this was mainly because - and I won't lie - it had the word "Jellicle" in its title. As a fan of Cats it prompted me to enter. I was glad to discover that this book does indeed have some ties to the musical...

Jellicle Girl is a fast, engaging read. A page-turner if you may. The characters are three-dimensional and engrossing, the plot believable. It's possible you will...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 11, 2013 Eryn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jellicle Girl is one of those rare gems where you are not expecting much but instead you get everything you needed.
The characters are perfect. The storyline is engaging; complicated enough to be interesting, yet never confusing.
The issues are real and disturbing and give real insight into problems that many people are dealing with right now. And they become personal and you feel as if you are right there dealing with them too.
I cried and I loved this book and I feel like a better person for ha...more

2 likes · like · see review

Dec 18, 2012 Teresa Townsend rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that you don't want to put down. I felt so many different emotions while reading it. I'll definately be looking forward to more books by STEVIE MIKAYNE. Great book!

2 likes · like · see review

May 01, 2013 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-fire

I'm not really sure where to start.....this story was incredibly written. The characters felt real and almost like you were a fly on the wall. I cried.....and cried......and then cried a little more. The emotions were very real. How does someone not only come up with a compelling story but is so spectacular at writing it? Stevie Mikayne is unbelievably talented....and not too shabby a person either (minus the Canadian spelling *snicker*)I'm struggling for the right words to use to give this book...more

1 like · like · see review

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Shelves: 2013, fiction-lgbtq

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“- I see the real world, Nancy. But it doesn't seem real to me.
- How does it seem?
- It seems like an illusion that nobody notices.” — 3 people liked it

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