Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
32nd out of 66 books
—
58 voters
Donorboy
by
Brendan Halpin (Goodreads Author)
Rosalind had two mommies. Now, thanks to a tragic accident involving foodstuffs, she has none. And Sean, the sperm donor responsible for half her DNA (and nothing else), is taking custody. Rosalind finds herself adjusting to a new life that seems both hateful and surreal–she’s an orphan with a new father, surrounded by friends she is beginning to despise and well-meaning a...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
August 10th 2004
by Villard
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
563)
The set-up is tantalizing: 14 year old Rosalind's lesbian moms die in a freak accident. The moms have left no will so trainwreck Ros is taken in by her birth father/sperm donor/total stranger Sean. Sean's life is in a rut and he admits (eventually) that he has bitten off more than he can chew. But he can't bring himself to give Ros over to her moms' overwrought best friend Karen, who is not happy AT ALL.
How to tackle the swirling, unpredictable mess that is the grief of a teenage orphan AND the...more
How to tackle the swirling, unpredictable mess that is the grief of a teenage orphan AND the...more
I found myself slowly but unerringly falling for both the teen heroine, Rosalind, and her new-found father, Sean the "donorboy" of the title. For fourteen years Rosalind lived with her Mom and her Mommy, until an accident killed them both, and the guy whose donation at the sperm bank started her existance steps for ward to claim her.
She doesn't want him. She hates God, the fates, everything that took her from her life. He has his own family drama, something that made him look at her and see him...more
She doesn't want him. She hates God, the fates, everything that took her from her life. He has his own family drama, something that made him look at her and see him...more
Okay, so I had some weird looks from my roommates when they read the back of this book. But you know what? WHO CARES! Donorboy is about a 14 year girl who has both her LESBIAN (shocking! I know...) mothers killed in a car accident. She goes to live with her sperm donor father. The ensuing story is hilarious but also very touching. What I enjoyed while reading this was the format the story was told in. The entire book is told through corresponding emails / text messages / recorded conversation tr...more
quick, engaging and really quite lovely. i hate plot descriptions, so i will avoid one here, especially as it would make the book sound like the sort after-school special, issue-oriented reading that makes me want to either roll my eyes or hurl said book across a room. and that is so very misleading. everyone seems to think that epistolary/i.m./journal/text-based books are easy, but many, many of them are crap. this one isn't, and it actually made me sort of miss the world of long-winded emails,...more
I thought this was going to be something stupid about organ donors, but I checked it out anyway because I loved Notes from the Blender (another YA book that Halpin co-authored). The title actually refers to a biological father - the sperm donor for a couple of lesbian mothers - who gets custody of the 14 y.o. main character when her moms are killed in a car accident.
I loved the characters and different points of view in Notes from the Blender, and the voices in this story - told through journal...more
I loved the characters and different points of view in Notes from the Blender, and the voices in this story - told through journal...more
When both her mothers die (it was a gay relationship) Sean (the sperm donor) gains custody of Rosalind. As if being a teen isn't hard enough, try losing both your parents and going to live with a complete stranger. Likewise, Sean doesn't have it any easier. He's still greiving over the loss of his own mother and has absolutely no parenting skills. Told entirely through e-mail, instant messaging, journal entries, and other random communications, Donorboy is a heart-felt story that explores the me...more
I didn't start out liking this book and it did take me a while to get into the flow because it takes place via e-mail, journals, texting, etc. But once I got into it I really did enjoy it. Basically a girl is raised by a lesbian couple. When they are killed in an accident her sperm donor takes custody of her even though he has had no contact with her. This story is about rebuilding a life and building a family out of the worst situations. Many times it cannot be done, no family is perfect, and s...more
I really enjoyed this book, even though I generally avoid books made up of e-mails, diary entries, and IMs. Rosalind's relationship with her donor father is touching, frustrating, and hilarious, and to see both perspectives makes it even better. Rosalind's perspective comes from a grief stricken, yet typical rebellious teenage attitude would have been too much solo, but combine it with Sean, the donor's, perspective as a new father who's trying to fill his own void, and you have a great dynamic...more
Donorboy
By Brendan Halpin
209 Pages
Donorboy is a story about a girl named Rosalind who tragically looses her moms as she’s entering highschool and a guy named Sean (AKA Donorboy) feels like he needs to take in the daughter he’s never really met to make it seem like his life has meaning. Over the course of six months and entirely through emails, journal entries, texts, etc, Brendan Halpin illustrates the bumpy road ahead. The book was pretty good and despite the death, there’s handfuls of humor th...more
By Brendan Halpin
209 Pages
Donorboy is a story about a girl named Rosalind who tragically looses her moms as she’s entering highschool and a guy named Sean (AKA Donorboy) feels like he needs to take in the daughter he’s never really met to make it seem like his life has meaning. Over the course of six months and entirely through emails, journal entries, texts, etc, Brendan Halpin illustrates the bumpy road ahead. The book was pretty good and despite the death, there’s handfuls of humor th...more
Donorboy by Brendan Halpin is one of those books I found by walking the shelves at my local public library. Rosalind is forced through a tragic accident involving "foodstuffs" to live with her biological father, a man who had been in her life nothing more than a sperm donor for a married pair of lesbians. Now that they are dead, their daughter is sent to live with him. Neither one is exactly thrilled with the situation.
The entire novel is made up of email exchanges, usually of the two main chara...more
The entire novel is made up of email exchanges, usually of the two main chara...more
Okay. Definitely an easy read.
The whole novel is a collection of emails, IM's, diary entries, etc. This gimmick was cute for a chapter or two, but didn't hold up for several reasons:
1) totally unjustified -- it's not as if this is a reconstructed historical record or some other situation that would call for a collection of primary documents.
2)frequently tedious -- a lot of repeated information and a lot of exposition-filled emails that no person would actually write.
3) characters all sound t...more
The whole novel is a collection of emails, IM's, diary entries, etc. This gimmick was cute for a chapter or two, but didn't hold up for several reasons:
1) totally unjustified -- it's not as if this is a reconstructed historical record or some other situation that would call for a collection of primary documents.
2)frequently tedious -- a lot of repeated information and a lot of exposition-filled emails that no person would actually write.
3) characters all sound t...more
This book was actually really good. I've wanted to read this book since I saw a review of it in People and thought it sounded really interesting, despite it appearing to be just another book in that slew of pop-fiction. I finally bought it at the beginning of January, but because of school I've had to put off reading it. Finally, thanks to summer, I got to read it. And it didn't fail to please.
I haven't ever really read a book like this before, both in plot and style. I know we've all read a boo...more
I haven't ever really read a book like this before, both in plot and style. I know we've all read a boo...more
Rosalind had two mommies, but after a tragic accident involving "foodstuffs," she's left with no mommies, only the sperm donor "father" she refers to as "donorboy." She doesn't care about school. Her old friends no longer hold any interest for her. And she's taken up smoking. Sean is at a loss for what to do. One day he's a single man who gets occasional updates about Rosalind from her moms, the next he's suddenly a real father with all the rights and responsibilities. This epistolary novel is f...more
The premise of this book is both hilarious and sad: Ros's lesbian parents are killed in a car accident involving a truckload of frozen poultry. The humor is not lost on Ros as she learns to live with her sperm donor father and writes in a grief journal named Fluffy. Written entirely in journal entries, emails and transcripts of recorded conversations, this book is a quick, emotional read.
This is one of those books that I pick up and cannot put down. I'm am right in there with Ros and Sean. I tear up when Ros tears up, I am frustrated when Sean is. As I moved through the short novel I kept thinking of people I want to give this book to: Laureen and her daughter Kayleigh, Jessica, Amy, Sara, Sarah. But I also want to keep it and add it to my collection of favorite books.
I randomly found this at the library and thought it sounded interesting...the writing bothered me at first--the informal tone was great, but it was just too structurally scattered that it annoyed the hell out of me; however, I got used to it very quickly and I enjoyed every minute I spent reading this book. It was a very pleasant surprise!
read it in 2005 when i got it off the bookshelf at one of my jobs, we used to get tons of paperbacks for review and once they were read by the staff they were fair game for the rest of the employees. Its a good book that would probably fit into some school curriculum's if they have a more open minded policy about contemporary fiction.
I was curious to read this when I heard the premise--a sperm donor raises his biological teenaged daughter after her lesbian parents die in a car crash. The book turns out to be lightweight. The main character is the perfect man to raise the girl, a lawyer specializing in family law, eager to step up and solve any problem.
Told via e-mails, diary entries and letters, the story of a girl orphaned by a horrific accident comes to life under the pen of Brendan Halpin. Rosalind feels abandoned and angry, Sean feels ill-equipped as a parental figure, and both must come to terms with the odd twists and turns that life brings in order to heal.
Picked up as the unsuspecting person taking care of a surprise child/dog stories appeal to me. Most of all I enjoyed how this story was told through scraps of information, like emails sent between the two. I could connect to the main characters and their different voices brought fun into the serious material.
I'm not sure if this is the funniest tragedy, or the saddest comedy I have ever read. It may be targeted at teens, but the messages about grief are applicable to anyone at any age.
A great read. Boring at the beginning but worth it at the end. Very well written and in some cases easy to connect with. A humorous but tragic masterpiece.
At first I was a little skeptical about a story told entirely through e-mail, IM conversations, text messages and other communication between characters. But with the exception of the IMs (shudder), I actually loved this method of storytelling and really connected with the characters, perhaps because I felt like I was actually getting to know them better than I might have through prose.
(Although I loved the storyline, I also feel compelled to throw out a PSA about how, dude, why would you put a...more
(Although I loved the storyline, I also feel compelled to throw out a PSA about how, dude, why would you put a...more
I thought the plot was interesting. and I liked most of the characters. I did however think, that the dialogue was a bit to raunchy. way too many "F words" for a teen book. but a solid read overall.
I liked how the book was written in emails, letters, IMs, etc. I always like those types of books.
funny. family can what you want it to be
May 06, 2013
Yiota Kandalepas
added it
Grad school
It started out interesting, funny and cute enough but after 100 pages or so, it felt like repeating too much of what happened before. I don't know. It got kinda boring, and the characters weren't edgy enough to make me enjoy this more.
Cute and funny and touching.
A touching novel about an orphaned teenage girl (whose lesbian moms were killed in an automobile accident involving 'foodstuffs'), her sperm donor dad who takes custody after their deaths, and the making of a new, alternative family in the face of tragedy. The pacing was slow in spots, but overall, this is a tender and witty tale that will resonate with anyone who has had to rebuild their life after a family tragedy.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
I grew up in Cincinnati, went to college in Philadelphia, and also lived in Taipei and Edinburgh along the way. I've lived in Boston since 1991.
I became a professional writer in 2000, writing about my late wife Kirsten's breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Kirsten died in 2003, leaving me and our daughter Rowen. I married Suzanne in 2005 and got her kids Casey and Kylie in the deal too. Bargain...more
More about Brendan Halpin...
I became a professional writer in 2000, writing about my late wife Kirsten's breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Kirsten died in 2003, leaving me and our daughter Rowen. I married Suzanne in 2005 and got her kids Casey and Kylie in the deal too. Bargain...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
Mar 17, 2011 05:59am