"Heartbreaking story of a schoolgirl’s hidden pregnancy."
October 2024 Book of the Month
This undoubtedly hard hitting and harrowing novel is about so much more than teenage pregnancy, although the book indeed opens with a shockingly visceral description of a teenager giving birth in a classroom. It confronts issues of toxic masculinity, sexist victim blaming, toxic social media, the importance of female friendship, broken families and overwhelmingly how young people can be failed by the lack of professional support whether offered to adolescent mothers or to those with mental health problems.
Louisa Reid is already well known for her verse novels, but here the story of best friends Ashley and Ruby is told in a brilliant mixture of poetry and prose. Ashley’s prose gives us the context and descriptive detail and the verse immerses us in Ruby’s emotional state and combined they make a compelling and unputdownable narrative. Ruby’s agonising pain, fear and confusion contrasts with Ashley calmly taking control, recognising what is happening to her friend, having witnessed her own mother giving birth.
The obviously shocked and traumatised Ruby cannot defy her mother’s cold insistence that she must give up the baby to concentrate on the bright future that she believes her academic high achieving daughter should have. Unlike Ashley, Ruby has no faith or loving family to support her, but Ashley struggles to understand how she could give away her baby and when the truth about the father comes out, things become even more complicated and Ruby becomes ever more isolated and her mental health inexorably deteriorates.
This is a beautifully crafted, authentic and incredibly powerful account of how systems and society failed Ruby and a heartbreaking portrayal of maternal love. It should make young people really think about the power that their words and actions can have and to think about why society still seems to blame and shame teenage mothers.
| Suitable For: | |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
