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Hooked

Catherine Greenman

3.34 · Rating details · 1,321 ratings · 203 reviews

Thea Galehouse has always known how to take care of herself. With a flighty club-owner mom and a standoffish, recovering-alcoholic dad, Thea has made her own way in her hometown of New York, attending the prestigious and competitive Stuyvesant High School. But one chat with Will, a handsome and witty senior, and she's a goner—completely hooked on him and unable to concentr ...more

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Hardcover, 276 pages

Published August 9th 2011 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

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Teen Pregnancy

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· 1,321 ratings · 203 reviews

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Jan 28, 2012 Michelle rated it liked it

Shelves: review-on-blog, own

Hooked is such a believable and real book. Nothing is sugar coated, nothing is too far of a stretch. It is all real life, and that is what I enjoyed most about it. I am not a huge fan of teenage pregnancy so I wasn't sure how much I was going to love Hooked, but Catherine Greenman does not try to glamorize pregnancy. But what she does accomplish is paint a very accurate picture of the situation and how it affects everyone. Hooked is the story of not just Thea and Will, but of their whole familie Hooked is such a believable and real book. Nothing is sugar coated, nothing is too far of a stretch. It is all real life, and that is what I enjoyed most about it. I am not a huge fan of teenage pregnancy so I wasn't sure how much I was going to love Hooked, but Catherine Greenman does not try to glamorize pregnancy. But what she does accomplish is paint a very accurate picture of the situation and how it affects everyone. Hooked is the story of not just Thea and Will, but of their whole families.

Thea is a likable enough character. I went into the story ready to dislike Thea. I know that is awful, but I imagined her to just be one of those people that thinks pregnancy would never happen, so they don't take any kind of precaution against it. But that was not Thea at all. She was so strong, and moral and darn it, she even crocheted! She was adorable and I ended up really liking her.

Will was just kind of meh, for me. I was kind of indifferent to him, even before Thea got pregnant. I couldn't really see the appeal of him at all. And then after Ian was born, Will just started going downhill in my eyes. I am still undecided on my final verdict as far as he goes.

The real selling point for Hooked is the writing. It's so wonderfully written, that you just can't help but want to read more and more. Catherine does a great job describing everything, and she is awesome at developing her characters subtly. She doesn't just come right out and say every thought on every characters minds, she plays around with their body language and subtle cues to help get at what their feelings are, and I loved that so much! I think that is the mark of great writing, and Catherine has it down.

Hooked also has a really satisfying ending. Not everything is wrapped up, but hey that is real life. Things can't always be neatly wrapped up at the end of the day. Thea and Will and Ians journey is still ongoing, but I the ending of Hooked was just perfect. Any fan of contemporary and realistic fiction will really enjoy Hooked. ...more

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May 27, 2011 Peggy rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: No one

Recommended to Peggy by: It was an advanced reader's copy.

Thea is a high school junior when she falls in love with a senior. She is sure that when Will leaves for college in the fall that he will dump her, but he doesn't. He attends a university in New York close enough that she can visit him anytime and still make it home for dinner. Then Thea discovers that she is pregnant. Major life changes are on the way...

I really, truly didn't like this book. In fact, I never finished it - I gave up and that is unusual for me. I felt the writing was uneven and ...more

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Jul 02, 2018 Kelly Gunderman rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Check out this, other reviews, and more fun bookish things on my young adult book blog, Here's to Happy Endings!

**Actual Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

It took me forever to read this book. I'm not even kidding - I have been reading this book for 3 months now. I'm not even sure why - I mean, I've read other books in between reading this one, but for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to sit down and finish this. I actually thought about not finishing it a few times, but the book itself wasn't nec ...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Joni Thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: teen, young-adult, teen-pregnancy

There is no book on teen pregnancy that I will pass up, it's a subject that for some reason, I love to read about. So naturally I couldn't wait to read this book. And I liked it. The story follows Thea who meets Will at school and he asks her out on a date. Before you know it they have both fallen hard for each other, completely wrapped up in and, yes, hooked on each other. Their relationship even withstands Will's move to college. Then Thea finds out she is pregnant and their relationship will There is no book on teen pregnancy that I will pass up, it's a subject that for some reason, I love to read about. So naturally I couldn't wait to read this book. And I liked it. The story follows Thea who meets Will at school and he asks her out on a date. Before you know it they have both fallen hard for each other, completely wrapped up in and, yes, hooked on each other. Their relationship even withstands Will's move to college. Then Thea finds out she is pregnant and their relationship will be tested in ways they never could have predicted.
When Thea finds out she is pregnant at first she plans to have an abortion but she can't go through with it. She tells Will and they sit down and tell their parents. Will's aunt is subletting her apartment so they are able to find a place to live with the baby. Will lands a job as a summer associate at a law firm and Thea stays home preparing for the baby. But neither one of them is fully prepared and after the baby comes tensions rise between the sleepless nights and the money issues and everything else that comes from having a child. When a freak accident with the baby pushes Will farther away from Thea and he decides he can't do it anymore Thea is on her own to care for their son with one person to turn to, her stiff, uptight father.
I am glad this book featured the problems and troubles that come with a baby. So many times books gloss over the issues but this book showed that tempers flare, parents become enemies and babies are not always a little bundle of joy 24/7.
While the title obviously is about Thea being completely Hooked on Will, it also refers to the hobby Thea takes up while she is home alone while Will is at work: crocheting. I love books that describe hobbies like knitting, crocheting and baking and I have been itching to learn to crochet since I read this book. It was a nice little side part of the story to hear about Thea working on learning to crochet and the special project she is working on.
The only downfall of this book was the dialogue, it was a bit off to me. Almost like it the author was trying too hard to make the characters sound witty and sarcastic. It took me a while to get used to it but after a few chapters I didn't even notice anymore.
This book by far has the most realistic take on how a baby can affect a relationship. It's relief to find a book that doesn't make it rainbows and butterflies, but one that actually delves into the hardships and the disappointments that follow a teen pregnancy. ...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Brandi Kosiner rated it liked it

This was a gritty yet funny at time contemporary. I think that we get a unique view into being pregnant and being a teen mom, and I think that it's an important message. As much as Thea tries at times, she cannot romanticize the idea, especially when her boyfriend Will makes it where she can't stay with him for a while. Though I liked this book and what it tried to convey, I was left feeling like there is nothing that will make me remember it a year from now. I still think that its worth readin ...more

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May 20, 2011 Hannah rated it it was ok

Shelves: own-finished-copy, 2012

This books really makes me wish I lived somewhere where, instead of having to buy books online, I could go to a bookstore or library and take a look at the book, read the first page or so, before buying or borrowing it. After reading about a page, I was almost positive that this book would not be a good read for me. And it wasn't - the book frustrated me to no end.

Hooked starts out describing how Thea meets Will and how their relationship develops. And from the beginning on, their relationship d This books really makes me wish I lived somewhere where, instead of having to buy books online, I could go to a bookstore or library and take a look at the book, read the first page or so, before buying or borrowing it. After reading about a page, I was almost positive that this book would not be a good read for me. And it wasn't - the book frustrated me to no end.

Hooked starts out describing how Thea meets Will and how their relationship develops. And from the beginning on, their relationship didn't work for me. Thea and Will are the definition of insta-love; they meet, and bam - they're in love. There's no chemistry, nothing they have in common, nothing they really talk about - they're just in love, or so we're told. From what we see, their relationship is mainly physical - and I don't mean that it's addressed as an issue how most of it is physical; that's just the way it is. I didn't like Will at all - he didn't seem "handsome and witty" to me, he just seemed creepy. I know, that sounds mean, but I just got creepy vibes from him. Thea got very dependent on Will, which is another pet-peeve of mine. She has no other interests and stops caring about school - it's all about her boyfriend. And again, something like that not being addressed as an issue but just being, you know, there, frustrates me.

I thought Thea was an okay character at the beginning - she's a little boring, but not terrible. (Well, except for the fact that she doesn't wash her hair. I'm sorry, but... ew.) Once Thea finds out she's pregnant, she really started frustrating me. The most basic thing you'd expect from a teenage pregnancy book would be that it discusses the different options there are for people in that position, right? But that's not really the case in Hooked. First, Thea is supposed to get an abortion, but she doesn't go through with it, and then she wants to keep the baby. Her keeping the baby is fine, and neccessary for the story, but it bugged me how she didn't even consider adoption. We're pretty far removed from Thea's character throughout and don't get too much insight into her thoughts, so maybe that's why, but I felt like we got no information whatsoever about why she decided to keep the baby.

In the book's defense, I did like the family set-up, since it's very unique. I wish Hooked had focused more on that, since I think Thea's parents could have been very interesting to read about. But the story focuses on Thea and the baby, so we didn't get to explore the one storyline I would have been interested in.

The pacing is a little strange. There are weird time jumps, and I just cannot understand the reasoning behind why some scenes are so detailed while others aren't. I mean, that's normal - there are always a few scenes that the author describes in detail and then some passages summarizing the time in between; that's how novels work. But how the author decided which scenes to describe in detail and which ones to skip made no sense to me. For example, the scene of the birth, which I'd consider important and a rather dramatic scene, is shortened to one small paragraph, while there are descriptions of Thea's crocheting that are pages long, which bored me to no end. I'm sorry if this sounds offensive, but it felt almost like the reasoning behind the pacing was to minimize action and drama and to maximize my boredom with the description of things that I just didn't care about, like Thea's crocheting.

Towards the end, the book does get a little better. I liked reading about how Thea tries to support the baby, and the issues she faces as such a young mother. But those were just the last 30 or 40 pages or so, so they couldn't save the book for me.

There are quite a few things that frustrated me about Hooked, but they alone don't explain my dislike for this book. Hooked just... GAH! It made me want to rip my hair out; it made me so angry, and I'm not even sure why. Maybe it's that often, when I'm not liking a book, I'm enjoying not liking that book. Does that make any sense? I don't know, I often just like thinking about why I don't like a book. And in Hooked, I didn't even have that - I just wanted it to stop. I kept wanting to stop reading; I finished the book, but really just because I'm weird and have this thing about needing to finish every book I start.

Reviewed at http://www.paperbacktreasures.blogspo... ...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Emily Benoit rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011

Concept/ideas: 4/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Storyline/Plot: 4/5
Rating: 3.5/4 stars

This book was really good. Not as good as I thought maybe it would be. But still definitely good. I was expecting more of an easier plotline, but it actually goes along with a pretty in depth feel and alot of thought within the story... more than you'd expect. It went pretty fast, and the book takes place over a span of about 3 years from the very beginning, to the very end. There were some slow parts, but every word, every ...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Emily Blake rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011, contemporary, for-review, pregnancy, really-liked, love-the-cover, finished-copy-for-review, ya-romance, young-adult, review

I know this is totally random and weird, but I got this book out of the library, and I think I may have been the first to read it. That has never happened before and I'm really excited about it. :p

Ok, enough with the creepy statements and to the review.

Although I really enjoyed this book, there were some things I didn't like about it. The romance was too quick. They meet, talk, whatever. That's fine. But then they go on a date, have their first kiss, fall in love, in one evening. And then soon a ...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Jessica B rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011-debut

From shutupimreading.blogspot.com

First of all: while the cover is relevant, I would never read it in public. There's really no hiding what the book's about. MOVING ON.

With Hooked's mostly-likable protagonist and unique subject matter, Hooked was an entertaining read.

No, it wasn't perfect. My main problem was the way time jumps. For a story about pregnancy, time jumps are needed, yes. But for some reason they felt odd and unnatural to me and it was something that bothered me, as did some other m ...more

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May 29, 2013 Savannah (Books With Bite) rated it really liked it

I don’t pick up much teen pregnancy books cause of the drama. This story however, goes farther and much more in depth than what I thought.

1. Plot. This has a very good plot. We have the characters who meet, fall in love and of course get pregnant unexpectedly. And they fail. I really enjoyed the plot has the rise of love, excitement of a new life to the failing of communication and fear. It really showcase every single angle.

2. Emotions. This story is just like a roller coaster. First love, the ...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Maya Khan rated it really liked it

Shelves: chick-lit, ipad-books

It was brilliant. I'll be honest, I started this thinking it was just another boy meets girl kind of book. But boy was ii wrong! It had its cliched moments but I liked the deeper parts better and was bowled over by the strong female lead and her love for her baby!

This is Greenman's first novel and I must say she's done a pretty good job. It's not mind blowing literature mind you, but it has it's finer moments as well. I liked the fact that she didn't try to portray teenage pregnancy as a cool t ...more

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Sep 15, 2011 kb rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011-reads, ya-reads

This gave a fresher take on first love and pregnancy and teen parenthood. The main characters, Thea and Will, weren't very likable at first but they grew on me because of how they themselves grew in the story (view spoiler). I also liked the writing style because it had the right blend of wit, swoon, angst, and preach. ...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Jenna rated it did not like it

This book was awful. It was poorly written and fantastically unrealistic, and the characters weren't even remotely likeable. Will was a jerk, Thea was a spoiled brat ... I hated everything about this book. It doesn't glamorize teen pregnancy, but it certainly doesn't paint a realistic picture of it.

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Nov 21, 2010 Laura's Book Addiction rated it it was ok

Shelves: delacorte, hardback, pregnant-teen, ya, books-i-own, 2011

Let down review to come.

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Jan 31, 2018 Pamela rated it liked it

Thea's just your typical high school girl... except for one problem. She's pregnant. Luckily, her boyfriend Will is attending college in New York City. And her mom and dad are supportive. Will Thea be able to make it work?

This book was ok. Quick read but not that interesting or memorable. Oh... except for the crocheted bikini, which I thought was totally ridiculous. Who the heck would wear a crocheted bikini -- especially when it costs $200+? I don't understand how that would hold up in water... ...more

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Apr 14, 2018 Birdie rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-but-dont-own, contemporary

This book was a roller coaster ride. I flew through it in a couple sittings and couldn't put it down. The writing is really fast-paced and easy to get into but it was very immature in my opinion, especially in the beginning. There were just some phrases that would make me cringe while reading them. However, I did really enjoy Thea's character growth and how she matured into a woman who stood up for herself and her child no matter what anyone else tried to do to control her. I've seen this book a ...more

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Dec 05, 2019 Nicole rated it it was ok

Meh. This was an okay book.

There was one giant plus, and that was that the author really made you feel for the main character, especially when it came to her relationships (particularity her parents). Other than that, I felt it was pretty rushed. It jumped around a lot- it seemed to skip what seemed like pretty events and then casually mentioned them later. It was was important plot details that were told, not shown, and it was pretty jarring. The characters also didn't feel like real people. J ...more

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Nov 24, 2017 Susan Bazzett-Griffith rated it liked it

Shelves: great-fiction-and-not-great-fiction

A realistic, if somewhat slow story about an average teenaged girl from New York, who has an average high school romance who gets pregnant and the aftermath of that pregnancy and how it affects her family, her future and her relationship. Rather than having any sort of moralistic story line (refreshing!), the story is actually all just very slice of life, reminding me a bit of the 1980s film For Keeps, but with less drama and no comedic relief moments. Unexpected and also a bit underwhelming, bu ...more

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Apr 11, 2016 Liza rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, fiction, young-adult, contemporary, 2016

I spent most of this book waiting for it to go bad, but honestly, in the end it was just a cute (I hate to use that word about a book dealing with teenage pregnancy, which this book definitely is) story about a girl who has a baby when she's 18 and it turns out okay. It was periodically disjointed, sometimes random to the point of "what was the point of that paragraph?" but overall a straightforward story. I would classify this as young adult fiction.

A lot of was annoyingly vague. The sex was v I spent most of this book waiting for it to go bad, but honestly, in the end it was just a cute (I hate to use that word about a book dealing with teenage pregnancy, which this book definitely is) story about a girl who has a baby when she's 18 and it turns out okay. It was periodically disjointed, sometimes random to the point of "what was the point of that paragraph?" but overall a straightforward story. I would classify this as young adult fiction.

A lot of was annoyingly vague. The sex was vague (in a, "Wait, did they take off their clothes? What is he 'thrusting' into?" kind of way where you have to reread the paragraph to make sure that just happened), the giving birth process was vague (in a way that made me simultaneously question whether the author has kids and also assume she does), it sort of jumped around a bit when it was convenient, and there wasn't a ton of resolution to the peripheral characters (they just sort of existed). But it wasn't bad. The characters evolved. Somewhat painfully, in some cases. And it was written by someone who is obviously familiar with the area the characters live in, which I tend to appreciate.

I think the only major turn off for me with this book was that it was just so easy for Thea. Yeah, okay, there was a half a second where she agonized over the abortion, and half a minute where she was stressed about Will. But she has a charmed life. Maybe I'm just jealous.

And, honestly, if my parents and in-laws wrote us a check for $20,000, set us up in a rent-controlled apartment, paid for both our college educations, then found me a job, let me and the baby live with them when it didn't work out with the baby's father, paid for a full-time nanny to watch my child in-house,and then wrote a $25,000 check for me to start a business, I'd do okay, too. Right?

So, yeah, a lot of is ridiculous fantasy, but enough of the book was realistically-enough written (hint: I still have complaints) for me to keep reading. Sometimes the tone irritated me, but I think that was on more of a "this is not my type of person" level that I'm not used to finding in books. I guess I more often read books about people that are either popular and you expect them to act that way (yeah, I know what I just implied, sorry), or sympathetic to nerd culture. I'm not used to the main character being so... Let's just say that I use the term "hipster" in the same tone Thea says "nerd."

But the entire book was written from such a privileged point of view that I can't even find words. They discuss "opening a shop" like it's so obvious that everyone should do it. I wanted a baby and I was cleaning to much, so my husband said, 'Open a shop!' and so I did! I don't even live in a world where anyone I know would buy a $300 bikini, let alone a stupid crocheted one. (I like crocheting, by the way.) New York must be another planet where everyone has that kind of money. I guess you'd almost have to, to live in they city, but it still irks me that Thea and Will's parents simply gave them $10,000 each. I lived in a studio apartment in a shitty part of town, gave up any thoughts of going to college, got a full-time job making $6.75 an hour, a second part-time job making $8 a hour, worked 60 hours a week, and went back to work four weeks after I gave birth because my electric was going to get shut off. My parents were not in the equation, certainly not financially, and I paid for daycare, too. I just. Maybe I just wasn't ambitious enough, or maybe I just didn't come from the right background to have this kind of advantage. All I know is that having a kid that young didn't work out that way for me.

And, let's be honest: I finished high school. My background was such that, if my parents didn't give a shit once I was an adult, then it's fair to say that they also didn't bring me into a childhood where I was hungry or lived in a shelter. So in a way, maybe I was privileged, too.

(Also, wtf. They gave her Percocet after she had the baby? I got frickin Tylenol, every time.)

But some things she got right.

I was pissed when I got home, the usual thing, how Ian ruled and how I couldn't do something I wanted to do for three seconds without him flipping out, how I was stuck with him all the time while in the meantime everyone else on the planet had a life.

I think at least every mother who's had children too young has that thought at least once. How you deal with it is what defines the situation, but the thought, that's universal.

So, overall, I guess I'm going to go with a 3. But it's more of a 2ish type of 3. It gets points for not outright glamorizing teenage pregnancy, but I doubt many young girls are this privileged when they get knocked up in high school.

ETA: After some thought, I wanted to add that, while this book was a super idealist view of what could happen to a girl who had a baby so young, it isn't entirely unheard of. Some people have supportive families; some people have enough money to make having a child at 16, 17, 18 workable. Most people don't, and I think that some of this book was so fantasticaly that it made it hard for me, one of the have-nots, to relate to what was happening. It was just too good to be true, and that took away some of the believability for me. But if you view it from that angle, it wasn't a bad book. ...more

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Jan 09, 2018 Jordan Kuck rated it liked it

This book moves very slow and has wayyyyy too many details but it is a good book with an okay ending. I did enjoy it at times but other times i was just dragging through it. I only finished it because i was too invested in finding out the ending lol.

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Nov 14, 2019 Fierymermaidbooks rated it liked it

Book Review (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
This book was really cute! I loved how the author gave them a good relationship before they found out about the baby. Then they decided to keep the baby, and you get to see the struggles of adjusting to parenthood. I wished the ending would have been better! ———————————————-

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Oct 18, 2016 Kasi rated it liked it · review of another edition

It was an OK read

Honestly the idea of the book was better then the actual story. Thea was a bit obnoxious and immature through out the ENTIRE book. I thought maybe she would grow up after having a baby but NOPE. *SPOILER* The part where will brings home friends and they are smoking pot around Ian really got to me. She was so concerned with his safety ect, Yet having drugs around her child didn't phase her at all? All in all the book was a bit unrealistic to the ACTUAL lives of a teenage mother.

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May 22, 2017 Randi rated it liked it

This book was pretty slow, but still engaging.

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Apr 25, 2018 Jennifer Sims rated it did not like it

I bailed on this. There wasn't anything specific I didn't like, I just couldn't get into it. I may give it another try later.

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Nov 03, 2018 Petra Willemse rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult-female

Silly book that deals with a teenage pregnancy in a tired and trite way.

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Jul 02, 2019 Krista rated it did not like it

Shelves: books-read-in-2019

Didn't finish. It was not interesting and I couldn't connect with any of the characters.

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Sep 09, 2019 Elaine rated it liked it

Pregnant teens try to make it on their own in spite of everyone's objections. Not your typical teen romance.

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Jan 12, 2020 Jennifer rated it liked it

Some spots are very hard to follow, and was poorly written. I read the whole thing only because I hate to have a book unfinished.

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Jun 26, 2012 Drew Constance rated it really liked it

My thoughts :

So a little while back the Misty - The Book Rat did a discussion topic on Buzz words and deal breakers and while I do believe I had a list ready to roll I never made the video. Needless to say Hooked [to use something totally cliché] had me hooked and it reeled me in with some of my favorite buzz words: Knitting, wool, crochet, teen pregnancy, dysfunctional family and love. Now while I loved those words and I admit I certainly was excited throughout the book every time she mentioned My thoughts :

So a little while back the Misty - The Book Rat did a discussion topic on Buzz words and deal breakers and while I do believe I had a list ready to roll I never made the video. Needless to say Hooked [to use something totally cliché] had me hooked and it reeled me in with some of my favorite buzz words: Knitting, wool, crochet, teen pregnancy, dysfunctional family and love. Now while I loved those words and I admit I certainly was excited throughout the book every time she mentioned wool and babies; Hooked was not a perfect marriage from begging to end and here’s why.

To begin with there was a lot of inconsistencies in the story, parts where the writing made no sense and I felt were just there to be a filler for the real juice. At times the dialogue itself was confusing, sometimes I just had to read through it and hope that whatever she said would be relevant later on and some of it was, but a lot of the time it was unrealistic to what I know teenagers and even adults to talk like. Lastly Hooked has these characters that are so dense, maybe it is because the writing is meant to come across as simplistic, but to me it reads like a few of those contemporary books where the author sat down and just wrote a stream of consciousness ramble getting to know her characters before she fully fleshed them out and really began writing.

You’d think from those pointers alone that I would dislike the book, but actually I became addicted to reading it. It was so raw and real, the portrayal and the darkness that comes from pregnancy, especially teen pregnancy. It is not all happiness and cash flowing and I actually merited her for creating a family that while were rich did not indulge the main character. I think it made Thea, our main narrator a lot stronger in the end. Her parents are such self-absorbed tools, but it works because we get to see how Thea was raised and her parents influence. We also get to grow with her as her independence becomes stronger as does her passions to make the best life for her and her son.
It wasn’t only the teen pregnancy that had me reading till all hours of the morning though, but the dynamics of each relationship she has with her family and her bf throughout the novel and how those relationships change and progress.

I felt this is where the real juice was. The honest to god real life where people struggle and things fall apart and then there is a turning point where you realize that you would do anything for this child and then you slowly start to grow up. I loved this aspect of the novel. She didn’t whine about it, she took everything on board, all the hatred and the disbelief and lack of faith everyone had in her and she turned it into success with her own mind and her perseverance and love for her child.

This novel broke my heart so many times and ripped it from my chest, there were so many moments when I thought I could not take it anymore and I was dying inside for Thea. My strong internal motherly instincts flared up and I wanted to gut Will for being so heartless and weak and for all the utter crap he put her through. He was not a very strong character and I certainly didn’t like him from the beginning but he sure as hell did a fantastic job in the novel in convincing me how strong minded women are and how proud we should be.

Along with will I hated, yes hated Thea’s mother with an anger so deep rooted I could have slapped her so hard it would knock her teeth out. She was a hypercritical, self-absorbed, self-important bitch. She was always complaining and fluctuating with her moods and to be honest she sounded like the type of mother who was not meant to have children. I could see why she could have driven anyone away.

My favorite character in the book was her father. Maybe it had something do with having that relationship with my own father throughout his sobering up, or maybe it was the way the two of them grew together over the course of the novel and what faith he truly had in his daughter even if he had a funny way of showing it. But I loved it.

I would recommend anyone to read it. Please give it a chance, I know there is a lot to dislike about the construction and execution of this novel, but the real gem is the story and the emotional impact is has. I could read it over again and I most likely will sometime in the future. But forewarning, if you are even the slightest bit crafty you may have the urge to start taking up crocheting or checking out wool stores.[ which is never a bad thing] This can get addictive. I would recommend this for all young adults as it is a perfect portrayal of real life and the implications, complications and triumphs that teen pregnancy can bring.

I am giving this:
★★★★.5
Crocheted Bikini bottoms
...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Jordyn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, ya, issue-books

When Thea Galehouse meets Will Weston, she falls headlong into love with the quirky, handsome, and smart senior. Their relationship becomes serious, surviving Will meeting her parents (hard-nosed part-time-realtor mother and success-obsessed father) and starting college. When Thea ends up pregnant she finds herself unable to go through with the abortion that everyone expected. Her and Will's parents help them financially so that Will can continue to go to school and later, when a fight with Will When Thea Galehouse meets Will Weston, she falls headlong into love with the quirky, handsome, and smart senior. Their relationship becomes serious, surviving Will meeting her parents (hard-nosed part-time-realtor mother and success-obsessed father) and starting college. When Thea ends up pregnant she finds herself unable to go through with the abortion that everyone expected. Her and Will's parents help them financially so that Will can continue to go to school and later, when a fight with Will shakes her to her core, she finds herself accepting help from the one person she never expected: her distant, workaholic father. The plot here is one that covers a large amount of time (three or four years, I think) in relatively few words (the book clocks in at less than 300 pages).

The fact that this book does cover so much time, and not all of it during Thea's teenage years, reminded me quite a bit of both Other Words for Love and I Now Pronounce You Someone Else. The similarities between the three books may be few, but they certainly stand out. Thea's family situation at the start of the book is an unenviable one; since her parents' divorce years ago her dad has remained "married to" his job and weekends with him consist of waiting for him to come home for dinner and enduring discussions about her less-than-stellar GPA and college aspirations. Her mother, on the other hand, is a bit of a free-spirit, but a stubborn and opinionated one. She expects her daughter to share her very firm opinions on family, work, sex, and appearances. Since Thea and her mother are close, I tried hard to empathize with or even like her mom, but just couldn't do it. She was off-putting. Her tactless judgements of others (from Thea's best friend Vanessa to her father) were startling and made me wonder how on earth she didn't get into more fights with Thea, who seems to almost-but-not-quite agree with her, at least in the beginning.

The secondary characters, even when I didn't like them, had unique and strong personalities. But Thea was a mystery. It's easy to see what she values, what she loves, and later on what she wants, but at the end of the novel I still had no idea who she was. At one point Will tells her that she's "weird" (in a good, smart, quirky way, apparently), but there's little evidence of this. There's not much evidence to point in any direction as far as personality is concerned and while I'd expect that to make this book a Did Not Finish, her story was heartfelt and entertaining enough to keep me reading. Thea's love for her even-unborn son, Ian, is obvious and overwhelming. She constantly worries about losing him, doing that very Mom-ish thing of imagining all the worst scenarios. Yet when he is hurt, she's incredibly level-headed and capable, doing what she needs to do to help him. Thea may not be the most fleshed-out character, but even as a teenager she's a great mother.

Much of this book is predicated on the basis of a fight Thea has with her boyfriend, Will. And while it would be a spoiler to discuss the specifics, I will say this: it seemed unrealistic. Not the fight itself, but Thea and Will's response to it afterward. An comment that seemed very obviously prompted by anger and worry set a chasm between the two, sending Thea back to her surprisingly helpful father. It seemed unrealistic, but then at other times I could clearly understand Thea's responce. If not her actions, at least the feelings behind them. Her father, who is set up as a distance, workaholic who doesn't care what his daughter wants if it's not in line with his expectations of her, turns out to be not only more helpful than her mother, but also more concerned and loving - sometimes in a way Thea doesn't quite understand - than I would have imagined. Their rocky relationship is one of the things that makes this book one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Other relationships are less explored. I wanted more from Thea's changing friendship with her best friend Vanessa and sometimes wasn't sure what to think of the romance between Will and Thea. Though it's obvious they love each other, the lack of personality on Thea's part (and sometimes Will's as well) makes the relationship one that isn't felt as strongly as I would have liked. I would recommend this to readers looking for a YA that tackles some traditionally non-YA topics (motherhood, for instance). ...more

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