one of those hideous books where the mother dies - Sonya Sones

If it had been by anyone but Sonya Sones, I probably would have loved it.

Unfortunately, I think that it might be impossible to top What My Mother Doesn't Know. It's so annoying. I wish that this new book (her third), one of those hideous books where the mother dies, had come out first. Then I would have been head over heels in love with it, and I would have made everyone read it, and THEN she could have topped it. But please, please, please, don't get me wrong. This is a good book, and well worth reading. Anyway, it's rough when the second book that you write is one of the BEST BOOKS EVER!! How can you follow that up?

It's another verse novel, but this one also includes emails between Ruby and her best friend back in Boston, Ruby and her boyfriend back in Boston, and from Ruby to her mom. Ruby's mom has just died, so she's getting shipped off from Boston to go and live in Hollywood with her movie star father (she's only ever seen him in the movies), and who ditched her and her mother before Ruby was born. Yeah--that's going to be an easy adjustment.

Here He Comes

The guy from whose
ridiculously famous loins I sprang
is heading straight toward me.

He's walking right up to me,
smiling at me
just like he smiled at Gwyneth Paltrow,
in that sappy opening scene
from The Road to Nowhere.

My real, live, honest-to-goodness dad
is standing here right in front of me
saying, "You must be Ruby."

Who wrote this dialogue?

I want to say, "No, duh."
I want to grab him by his collar and scream,
"Where have you been all my life,
you worthless piece of--"

But the words
get all fisted-up in my throat.
So I just nod.

Then his eyes start getting all blurry,
exactly like they did when
he was reunited with Julia Roberts
in that terrible remake of It's a Wonderful Life,
and he puts his arm around my shoulder,
just like he put his arm around hers.

Gag me.

So I duck down,
pretending I have to tie my shoe.
And when I stand back up
he doesn't pull any more of that
arm-around-the-shoulder,
I'm-your-famous-movie-star-father crap again.

At least he's capable of taking a hint.

The parts about the Hollywood high school are priceless, Aunt Max is awesome, and like What My Mother Doesn't Know, it's predictable, but not in a bad way. Oh, and she's a big reader, so there are a couple of poems that are basically reading lists of awesome YA books. Rad.