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, I repeat love, to give Siobhan Vivian the benefit of the doubt and assume I know exactly what she was trying to say with this book, and yet I would be lying if I said I was actually sure. In fact, I'm slightly bewildered by all the mixed messages flying around in this novel and I'm tempted to go search out some author interviews to see if I can shed some light on Ms. Vivian's point here.
At the beginning, the protagonist - Natalie - reminds me of the radical feminism that destroyed the US in The Handmaid's Tale. She believes that when girls wear revealing clothing to get boys' attention they are objectifying themselves, she also notes from experience how boys can ruin a girl's reputation if they become too involved. She seems to believe that the only way a girl can stay independent and focused on education/careers is to avoid boys completely during high school. Natalie also regards another girl's behaviour as slutty when she does a sexy dance routine in the hallway.
This other girl - Spencer - is the complete opposite. She believes slut-shaming is sexist and that girls should be allowed to express their sexuality anyway they want. I'm rather inclined to agree, and yet the moral of this story regarding Spencer's behaviour doesn't seem to be a positive one - a naked photo of her gets sent around the school. I feel like I'm back in the land of Ten Things We Did again, where the author seems to be making an important statement about female sexuality and then she just goes and throws a spanner in the works.
One small thing that annoyed me was the sudden rush to forgive Mike Dombitz. Everyone seemed to suddenly believe that he'd been treated unfairly even though he was the one who started all the disgusting, petty crap. I thought Spencer's revenge was brilliant and not too far at all. Though I will say now we're onto the subject of male characters, I think they are very lacking. The only remotely nice guy is Connor - who seems way too good to be true, by the way - and the rest are sex-obsessed monsters. It doesn't seem to matter whether you're on the anti-slut-shaming or the anti-sex side, men are still evil and none of them are good enough for any woman, ever. Natalie believes they are nasty and all want to control her, Spencer believes that they are nothing but sexual beings that women need to manipulate with their own sexuality. Woah girls, I adore the "love thyself" message but I don't condone the "hate men" message, I don't think that's what being a strong, independent woman is about - these things actually give feminism a bad name.
I do think that the author was trying to pull these two types of feminism together - Ms strong and independent, and Ms pro-sexuality - to combine the two and show that in reality you need to find some kind of healthy medium. I think she's right about that. I also enjoyed this book immensely, I was hooked on the characters, the interesting ideas presented, the romance... but in the end, the message was just a little too sloppy for me. I think I know what Vivian wanted to say, but it was far from clear. For that reason, this book gets 3 stars from me.
