My Life as a Rhombus

by Varian Johnson

book data

95 ratings, 3.66 average rating, 34 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		21%
4		36%
3		31%
2		8%
1		2%

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published

January 1st 2008 by Flux

details

Paperback, 304 pages

isbn

0738711608 (isbn13: 9780738711607)

description

Homework plus strawberry ice cream equals a typical night for high school senior and math whiz Rhonda Lee. Angling for a full scholarship to Georgia T…more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 195)

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Nov 20, 2008

Becky rated it:

Read in November, 2008

Rhonda the Rhombus. Perhaps not the most-appealing nickname a girl can have. But...Rhonda makes for quite a good heroine as one of the stars in Varian Johnson's My Life As A Rhombus.

Rhonda Lee is great at math. She excels so much that she tutors students of all ages at West Columbia Community Center. Which is how our heroine comes to meet Sarah Gamble. Sarah is one of the beautiful, popular people. Sarah needs help...and she needs it quickly if she's going to pull her grades up...more

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Sep 29, 2009

K. Bird rated it:

Rhonda is a "sadder but wiser" high school student who loves math. Her friends are geeks, and she shies away from talking to anybody in the popular cheerleader/basketball star clique.

But then one day a cheerleader comes to her tutoring center and it turns out Rhonda has more in common with the cheerleader than she thought.

The story is how Rhonda becomes friends with the cheerleader, and learns to trust herself as she finally heals from a traumatic experience a f...more

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Mar 17, 2009

Lesley rated it:

bookshelves: abortion, african-american, pregnancy

One of those books about Important Issues that has a gripping enough story to keep you going, but the writing didn't wow me. I found the teen characters' voices somewhat unconvincing, especially when compared to authors like Rita Williams Garcia who really captures them well. I was also unconvinced by some of the characters' motivations, but understand that they needed to do what they did in order to create drama to be resolved.

That said, the Important Issues really are Important, es...more

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Oct 12, 2009

Margaret rated it:

bookshelves: children-s-and-young-adult-fiction, poc-50-book-challenge

Read in October, 2009

Rhonda Lee is a math-loving high-school senior, working hard to earn a college scholarship and tutoring other kids in math; she doesn't have time for fun or dating. When she has to tutor popular Sarah Gamble, Rhonda notices Sarah's queasiness and tiredness and figures out that they have something in common. Against her will, Rhonda grows to like Sarah, and her brother David, and realizes that she needs to face her past.

On the plus side, I was impressed with the characterization of R...more

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Mar 14, 2010

Julieanndixon rated it:

This is the story of a girl that got pregnant at 15 and her dad made her have an abortion. Three years later, when the story takes place, she's a straight A student who doesn't date and through tutoring becomes friends with a girl who is pregnant. As she helps her pregnant friend, she must confront her past, her father and struggle with how to move forward in her own life, in dating, in trusting herself. I felt like the author handled a number of difficult topics with sensitivity. Too many F...more

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Jul 08, 2009

Janice rated it:

Read in July, 2009

This is the third book into my daughter's summer discovery of trashy books. By trashy, I don't mean poorly written etc, it's just a term that I use to describe certain types of book. My daughter has always wondered how people read books so fast, but now she knows. If it's really interesting (and the subject matter is probably somewhat inappropriate for your age) you find that you get through the book much faster than you normally would. This book is about teenage pregnancy, popularity, and tryin...more

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Sep 02, 2009

Allison rated it:

bookshelves: reviewed

Rhonda Lee is a very goal-oriented girl; she spends more time studying than socializing, more time tutoring than dating. While Rhonda is working hard to get a scholarship to Georgia Tech, she envies the perfect, popular girls like Sarah Gamble who seem to have the perfect life with money, powerful parents, and popularity. But when Rhonda is forced to tutor Sarah Gamble, she recognizes the pregnancy symptoms that she knows all too well: quesiness, puking, exhaustion. When Rhonda takes a chance an...more

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May 10, 2008

Jennifer Wardrip rated it:

bookshelves: trt-gold-star-award-winner, trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Rhombus: a parallelogram with four equal sides and sometimes one with no right angles. -Merriam-Webster online dictionary

On page one of this story, the reader meets the narrator, Rhonda Lee. Rhonda is a senior at Piedmont and tutors after school at West Columbia Community Center. Upon entering Piedmont, she was popular, but things have changed since she was a freshman. Enter Sarah Gamble - a junior, a cheerleader, popular, and force...more Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Rhombus: a parallelogram with four equal sides and sometimes one with no right angles. -Merriam-Webster online dictionary

On page one of this story, the reader meets the narrator, Rhonda Lee. Rhonda is a senior at Piedmont and tutors after school at West Columbia Community Center. Upon entering Piedmont, she was popular, but things have changed since she was a freshman. Enter Sarah Gamble - a junior, a cheerleader, popular, and forced by her mom, Justice Gamble, to find a tutor to help her with math.

What starts out as Rhonda's animosity towards Sarah and all of the kids like her at their school soon turns to a mutual understanding between the two girls. After their second tutoring session, Rhonda has deduced that Sarah is pregnant. With a simple "How far along are you?" by Rhonda, the friendship begins.

As Sarah struggles to come to terms with her pregnancy, and her ultimate decision, flashbacks by Rhonda fill the reader in on her history and previous pregnancy. Rhonda has shut herself off from anything but her studies and her goals to get into Georgia Tech on a scholarship. Her friendship and support to Sarah help her realize that past mistakes do not have to limit your future happiness. And so evolves the story, and the eventual outcomes of the choices each girl has to make, ultimately on their own.

Wow, what a great story! From the start, I didn't want to put the book down. And if it weren't for having to get up for work the next morning, I would easily have read the entire book in one sitting. As it was, I had to wait until the following day to complete it.

The most surprising thing is that the author of the book is a male. The story is told in the first person by a female. Mr. Johnson tells the story simply, without preaching, nor without choosing sides between pregnancy and abortion. He makes you think about the choices each girl has had to make with their lives, and how they will have to live with those decisions. Mr. Johnson is able to do that convincingly, even as a male. Reading the questions to the author at the end of the book, it was interesting to find out that the original concept of the story was meant to be written as an adult book, told from Rhonda's father's viewpoint. He has captured the struggles of teen girls perfectly, and the story is quite believable.

A similar story is ANGEL'S CHOICE by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, but Mr. Johnson's book has even more depth and emotion. Because of his uncanny ability to portray teen girls without coming across as knowing the right answers, I bestow a Gold Star Award on this book.(less)

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Jul 25, 2009

Kit rated it:

Read in July, 2009

This is a book about teen pregnancy and abortion, but it isn't a Dreaded Teen Problem Novel. The story is always centered on the characters, who are believable and interesting. The teens are a realistic mix of maturity and immaturity, and the moments when they come together to help each other are the highlights of the book. Parents and other adults don't get a lot of attention, but even then I felt that they were complex characters with realistic motivations.

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Feb 16, 2009

Parallax added it

bookshelves: -fiction, 2009-read, author-poc, chick-lit, fiction--poc, friendship, mainstream, young-adult

Read in February, 2009

Breezy novel about a math geek who got a secret abortion when she was a freshman. She ends up tutoring a popular girl who turns out to be pregnant. It's not a Problem Novel, and it's not depressing. It covers the math geek's relationship with her dad, her trust issues when she starts to date again, her growing friendship with the popular girl and how it affects her current friendships, her plans for the future, and some funny math jokes.

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May 25, 2009

Robin rated it:

bookshelves: read-and-liked, ya

Read in January, 2009

I'm not sure what the rhombus refers to. Maybe someone else has figured it out and posted it in their review, in which case I will go looking for it now.

Anyway, I liked most parts of this book, except for the thread with the dad and his girlfriend, which I felt never got fully resolved. I mean, it did, but not in an entirely believable way.

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2 comments

Jul 29, 2009

Susan rated it:

Read in January, 2009

I liked this and most teens love it. I wanted more of the relationship of between Rhonda and her dad. You don't see this relationship enough and I felt like it was a missed opportunity and given the storyline, I think this dynamic would have added more instead of some of the other too neat and predictable scenarios.

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Apr 02, 2008

Dooks rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, books-i-liked

Read in April, 2008

boyfriend x what she thought was love = an abortion a screwed up life.

Rhonda is still scared from the last relation she had with the rich, popular, basketball player, Cristopher. He got her pregnant then left her with his small amount of money to help pay for an abortion, an extremely pissed off father, and the fear of getting to close to anyone else for the fear of it happening again. When she runs into Sarah Gamble while tutoring kids with math, she finds herself helping with a lit...more

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2 comments

Apr 27, 2009

Nayah rated it:

Read in April, 2009

recommended to Nayah by: Fatema M.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! It's AmAzInG!
Rhonda sorta relates to me because of a few reasons and I've never read a book that was like that. Another thing: It's written by a guy which i think is awesome as well! Nothing more to say about it...love it!

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Oct 04, 2009

Katy rated it:

bookshelves: rosie-wannabees

I really wanted to like this book more. I felt like I was reading about Rhonda's emotions from her father's viewpoint. I will be interested to see what the teens think of this one.

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Nov 03, 2008

Abby Johnson rated it:

bookshelves: cybils-2008

Rhonda used to be one of the popular girls at her prestigious prep school, but all it got her was trouble. Now she's a wallflower, a smart girl who tutors kids at the community center, dreams of going to Georgia Tech on a scholarship, and watches the popular kids with a mixture of envy and disgust. When popular girl Sarah Gamble comes to her for tutoring, Rhonda refuses at first. But they have much more in common than she ever could have guessed.

This book has a really interesting premi...more

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Mar 22, 2009

Sharon Smith-scott, rated it:

Read in March, 2009

I found 95% of this books to be a true tale of the American teen. Itis full of teen angst. I would recommend to high school and mature eight graders.

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Mar 16, 2010

Akilah rated it:

Read in March, 2010

Teen pregnancy, whoooo! Loved the friendship that developed between Sarah and Rhonda, thought some of it was very melodramatic, but overall an engaging read.

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Dec 25, 2009

Ariel rated it:

Read in December, 2009

This was a good book, really honest. i liked how it was a male author telling from teenage girl's perspective. you don't see that a lot.

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Oct 11, 2009

Heather rated it:

3.5 stars
Rhonda begins tutoring rich, popular, and bitchy Sarah and soon realizes that Sarah is pregnant. Sarah confides in Rhonda and in turn, Rhonda shares her secret - she was forced to have an abortion a few years ago. They soon forge a bond as Rhonda supports Sarah as she decides whether or not to keep the baby.

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