Not That Kind Of Girl
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Not That Kind Of Girl
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3.61 of 5 stars

Natalie Sterling wants to be in control. She wants her friends to be loyal. She wants her classmates to elect her student council president. She... read full description


reviews

Jan 20, 2012
Emily rated it: 3 of 5 stars
In short, this book is about high school, sexuality, girl power, challenging the "slut" idea... to say I wanted to love it would be an understatement. This book gets right down to the issues I am interested in and I appreciate any attempt to remind young men and women that, at the end of the day, most of us just really are that kind regardless of gender or sexual preference. As long as it's done with safety and consent, I don't think teen sex is a bad thing.

And I would love, More...
2 comments like (26 people liked it)
Feb 07, 2011
Tatiana rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Ok, after meditating on this story during my yoga class, I am going to knock off a star. The more I think about it, the more it seems to me the message this novel sends is rather wishy-washy.

I appreciate any YA book that explores the subject of female sexuality. And Not That Kind Of Girl conveys the sort-of-feminist message that if a girls has sex, she doesn't automatically become a slut, quite well. I just wish the author didn't choose to deliver this message by making the main femal More...
13 comments like (26 people liked it)
Jan 24, 2012
Heather rated it: 4 of 5 stars
When I picked up Not that kind of Girl, I was expecting light and fluffy. After all, the cover boasts a young, pretty couple in the throes of what looks to be a sweet, affectionate kiss. Naturally, I assumed this book would contain a three star YA romance albeit with some added teenage emotional drama for added conflict. In other words, I was expecting a Dessen novel, but what I got was so much more. While I was anticipating a cutesy romance, I received a wonderful tale about what it means to b More...
2 comments like (9 people liked it)
Mar 07, 2011
Janina rated it: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars

Well. I just flew through Not That Kind of Girl in a couple of hours this afternoon. If you are wondering, yes, I actually would have had other, more important things to do. Such as studying, for example. But after exhausting myself pointlessly on a 6x6 matrix for about an hour, I decided to throw in the towel and reward myself with some quality book time. Which is something the main character here, Natalie, probably would not approve of.

Natalie has big goals in lif More...
5 comments like (9 people liked it)
Apr 21, 2011
Cory rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Eh, not bad. Kind of heavy on the messages though. And the cover is misleading. This isn't really heavy on the romance. Thankfully, it focuses more on girl/girl friendships. The first 1/3rd was four-star material. In fact, it reminded me of Saving Francesca. The second half was two-star material. It was very All-American Girl.

I don't agree with a lot of the messages, and only two characters really stood out: Spencer and Natalie. The rest were two-dimensional. Autumn had potential, bu More...
18 comments like (11 people liked it)
Nov 08, 2011
Tammara added it
This is going onto my Favorite Books Ever list. If you know what it's like to be a "good girl" but feel compelled to do something "bad" that, strangely, you don't feel bad for doing (but still feel the need to hide it), then you'll understand and feel a kinship with Natalie.

Natalie has all the good intentions in the world. She wants to be a good friend, she wants to develop her leadership abilities, she wants to concentrate on her academics. She's been doing these More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Sep 07, 2011
Nomes rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Not That Kind of Girl is my third Siobhan Vivian book. I've read all her books in order: A Little Friendly Advice was cute but perhaps too lower YA for me (in themes, vibe). I really loved Same Difference ~ it has some aspects that make the book very much my thing ~ an artistic setting (summer art school) and an older YA crush (her college-aged assistant art teacher-y guy) and it's themes are strong but subtly explored.

However, I struggled with her third novel. Not in terms of readin More...
8 comments like (11 people liked it)
Jan 27, 2012
Ari rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This book was as beautiful as the cover. I loved it!



The cover
I've been waiting to read this book from the moment I first saw the cover. Look at it. Isn't it beautiful? Not only the girl and the boy (they are cute), but that precise moment.

In my opinion this is one of the best moments in life (not as great as for example, holding your baby in your arms for the first time, but anyways you get my point).
It's one of those moments that fills your heart More...
13 comments like (3 people liked it)
Mar 06, 2011
Kristy rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This was a little bit too black and white for me, too "this is good and this is bad". The lines were drawn. This is what a good girl is, this is what a bad girl is. This is how it's supposed to be.
Almost too much "Girl Power", feminism for me. It loses a few points for me because it doesn't seem all that realistic and the characters weren't all that likeable.

That being said, I have to give credit to an author who is not promoting teen sex. The bad girl is More...
11 comments like (10 people liked it)
Aug 27, 2011
Faye rated it: 3 of 5 stars
It was quite good and I liked it in a sense that it was about a girl, a smart girl who had her good reputation and she was the President of their Student Council to top that all and she really badly want to meet other’s expectations from her like her teacher whom she sees as her role model because she looks very independent and a very powerful woman. She was the kind of girl who follow the rules, the kind who implements them until she did a very big mistake of falling for a jock who’s best frien More...
6 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 31, 2012
Morgan rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Natalie goes by the rules. Get up, go to school, get straight A's, go to student council, go to bed. So when she becomes student council president and gains an enemy, her friends past comes back with unfortunate news, and an old job is brought up again in a whole new way, Natalie's life starts unraveling.

Not That Kind of Girl was different from what I expected. I'm not sure what I really think about it. You know what this book felt like to me? It felt like a situation where you go to a More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Dec 30, 2010
Sara rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I'm not really sure why I waited so long to read one of Siobhan Vivian's novels, but, after NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL, I'll be definitely be reading the rest as soon as possible.


Natalie Sterling is a typical teen with very rigid views of what's right and wrong. For the most part, her entire high school career has gone according to plan, but his year things start to fall apart. Before she knows what's happening the line between right and wrong has begun to blur and Natalie finding hers More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Feb 03, 2012
Babi rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Mais resenhas: http://tintapink.blogspot.com/

Não Sou Este Tipo de Garota conta a historia de Natalie Sterling, uma garota inicialmente centrada e "certinha" que tenta sempre fazer as escolhas certas…Mas a vida é imprevisível e as coisas de uma hora pra outra podem mudar, e para Natalie elas tomaram um rumo totalmente contrario ao que sempre acreditou.

Quando Spencer, uma garota de quem Natalie foi babá à alguns anos, aparece em sua vida, tudo o que Natalie sempre More...
0 comments like
Nov 16, 2011
Kayla added it
Not That Kind of Girl
by Siobhan Vivian
Hardcover, 322 pages
Published September 1st 2010 by Push
ISBN 0545169151

When you're the good girl who does everything they way you're supposed to, it's hard to break out of that role. Natalie Sterling was that girl, in the running for student council president, her life was made up of studying, being on the honor roll, doing what was "right" and always being there for her best friend. She knows who to keep friend More...
0 comments like
Oct 25, 2011
Lesley rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Well-written, (mostly) realistic, and tackles an important and tricky subject: teen girl sexuality. I really liked the way it pitted two different positions against each other as part of a dramatic story and not just as an essay for a feminist studies class. One girl believes all boys want to take advantage of you and then hurt you so she avoids them entirely while another girl believes that making guys want her gives her all the power in the relationship. What they each end up learning is that More...
0 comments like
Sep 22, 2011
Krstina rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This book had a very simple plot which I didn't find to be that interesting it's nothing I haven't read before. It is about a determined independant girl, Natalie to strives to be nothing but the best in everything she does. However she gets involved with a guy she swore to herself she would never go after, Conner who is on the football team and friends with a guy who is a jerk to Natalie. Natalie of course does fall for him, giving the book a simple twist but I expected it and saw it comming. I More...
0 comments like
Sep 19, 2011
Bibliojunkies rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Slut or saint? Good friend or bad friend? In control or completely out of it?

Life is about choices, and Natalie Sterling prides herself on making the right ones. She’s avoided the jerky guys populating her prep school, always topped honor roll, and is poised to be the first female student council president in years.

If only other girls were as sensible and strong. Like the pack of freshmen yearning to be football players’ playthings. Or her best friend, whose crappy judgm More...
0 comments like
Aug 01, 2011
Nicole rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Page 15: "I nodded, even though it felt weird to be discussing things like divorce with Spencer. I was pretty sure our last conversation involved me trying to convince her that Lucky Charms would make a terrible pizza topping." -Natalie

Page 73: "I'd give my left arm for a chance to chat up Connor Hughes. That boy is . . . ungodly hot. He looks like he's been raised on whole milk and fresh blueberry muffins." -Spencer

Page 114: "There were a lot of More...
0 comments like
Jul 06, 2011
Diane rated it: 5 of 5 stars
In some ways, Natalie Sterling, the protagonist of NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL, reminds me of Rachel from Glee--motivated, extroverted, a bit of an outcast, and extremely concerned about her image. There are also huge differences--Natalie is very smart, loyal to a fault, a feminist student who is not (initially) a fool for love, and she doesn't sing. But she has that air of someone whose eye is most definitely on the prize--short-term, the Presidency of the Student Council at her private prep school, More...
0 comments like
Jun 12, 2011
Semisweet rated it: 3 of 5 stars
It didn’t matter if I was the kind of girl who had sex, or the kind of girl who had her portrait on a wall in the library, or the kind of girl who got into the best college, or the kind of girl who didn’t tell her parents everything, or the kind of girl who teachers loved.
I just needed to be okay with all the kinds of girl I was.

Girl Power: Natalie is definitely feisty and able to stand up for herself. She’s also defensive to the point of bitchiness, very set in her ways, and judg More...
0 comments like
May 30, 2011
Amy (Turn the Page) rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book didn’t set my heart racing and it was a far more serious read than I was expecting, but I found it very well-written. The story itself is pretty basic and takes place over a relatively short period of time, following every-day events that shape the growth, maturity and self-acceptance of a young woman. It is an insightful read and an important one I think. There is a touching love story, with several tingly scenes for those who love a romantic storyline, but the relationship doesn’t ta More...
0 comments like
May 30, 2011
Karina rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I found it funny how, while reading this book in the early moments of the day, I could hear this little voice telling me to stop and go back to my studies. Oddly enough, the little voice sounded extremly close to the voice that I had given this books protagonist, Natalie Sterling. Because what I was doing was something she would not approve of.

I also found it interseting how this YA book presented issues such as sexuality and feminism. I never would have thought those issues would ha More...
0 comments like
May 26, 2011
Thebookbutterfly rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Before I started Not That Kind Of Girl, I had all kinds of expectations. I was thinking tough, intelligent protagonist on the one-road track to Harvard. I was thinking swoon-y romance with the wrong sort of guy. I was thinking snappy dialogue and the kind of female empowerment that makes my heart swell.

This book...dodged my expectations a bit. Not in a bad way, just in a different way. It didn't have to live up to the standards I'd set for it, I just wanted it an enjoyable contemp. t More...
2 comments like (2 people liked it)
May 15, 2011
Rachel rated it: 4 of 5 stars
While I like the fact that Natalie Sterling thinks and acts like an honest to goodness feminist, I think her take in this subject is rather different. Natalie is a very proud and an uptight character. She thinks she's superior to everyone especially those abomination called highschool jocks. She thinks very little of them and won't even give them the time of the day if she could. She's a smart character though, the president of student council. She's against girls who make a fool of themselves a More...
0 comments like
Apr 23, 2011
Lynn rated it: 3 of 5 stars
It was hard for me to grade this book. While I found it immensely readable and compelling - I started it one evening and stayed up to the wee hours to finish it - the story's heroine was a little too hard to like for my tastes. Natalie Sterling is judgmental with a capital J. Even her best friend, Autumn, is subject to Natalie's high standards and repressed sense of acceptable behaviour. Natalie's only saving grace is that she expects a lot of herself as well, and by the end of the book, she's r More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Jan 25, 2011
Susan rated it: 1 of 5 stars
Natalie's a humorless pill, the worst kind of feminist stereotype. She's a bad friend; she's also pushy, manipulative, and controlling. She sneaks away to make out with Connor, who actually is a nice guy, but she's ashamed of what she's doing and very judgmental of his motives.

Beyond the issue that Natalie is straight-up unpleasant and the book is from her POV, Vivian's message about girls and sexuality is about as clear as mud and as well rounded as a brick.

She skates More...
4 comments like (7 people liked it)
Jan 19, 2011
Christiana rated it: 3 of 5 stars
The main character in this story is wound super tight from being a crazy overachiever-I think even more than teen Christiana, which is saying something (Teen Christiana was something of an overachiever).

I read this book in one sitting despite trying to put it down. It concentrates more on the girls of the story than on the relationship, which was pretty cool. Although the boy is pretty crush-worthy, even if he does live on a Christmas tree farm. It explores the idea of the good girl More...
0 comments like
Jan 12, 2011
Stephanie rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This is one book that I definitely have to thank the book blogging community for. As much as I try to not judge a book by its cover, it is something I do, and this is not a book I would have picked up on my own.

Natalie Sterling is a girl with plans. Cutting out the excess of high school involving boys, parties, and other aspects of a social life, she is determined to work hard, become student council president, and get into a school of her choice. She lives by certain standards and sh More...
0 comments like
Jan 11, 2011
Krissie rated it: 5 of 5 stars
So, based on its literary merit, this book probably doesn't deserve five stars. However, beyond being an engaging story that teenagers will read, I found it to be a thought-provoking exploration of a controversial subject. Main character Natalie is a typical high school goody-two-shoes over-achiever. The girl she used to babysit, Spencer, appears to be a typical high school dancer/slut. Spencer is of the opinion that she can use her feminine wiles to manipulate males; Natalie believes that h More...
0 comments like
Jan 03, 2011
Liza rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Who is Natalie Sterling? Seriously. Where does a person like this exist? I understand that Vivian was trying to make a point. After all, the character's last name is Sterling. Natalie is the kind of teen who is wound up so tight in being the good girl that she actually emits some kind of radioactive discharge.

I actually found Vivian's secondary characters to be more interesting and more realistic than Natalie. Natalie makes Pollyanna look like Marilyn Manson. I just couldn't tak More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)