A review by bethanymiller415
Gingerbread, by Rachel Cohn
4.0
Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn is a book about a sixteen-year-old girl, Cyd Charisse, who has returned home to live with her family in California after getting kicked out of an east coast boarding school. Cyd admits that she had made some very bad decisions and is now trying to be "good". She has a complicated relationship with her parents. Her mom and "real dad" were never married, and her father was married to another woman at the time she was conceived. At the outset of the book, she has only had contact with Frank, her real dad, twice. The first time was when they met in an airport, where he gave her Gingerbread, the rag doll that she still carries with her. The second time was when he gave her money to have an abortion. Because she doesn't know much about her real dad, she idealizes him and the half brother and sister that she has never met. When Cyd and her boyfriend Shrimp have a falling out and she gets grounded by her mother and stepfather, things take a turn for the worse, and Cyd's mom decides it's finally time for her and her real father to spend some time together. Cyd willingly goes to New York; however, what she finds there is not exactly what she expected.
I liked this book because it dealt with serious issues such as the difficulties in family relationships and premarital sex in a way that was realistic. Both of these are issues that most teens are confronted with at some point in their lives. Though there were serious issues, the book has funny moments as well, and Cyd's narration kept the mood light for the most part. Cyd does learn some lessons by the end of the book, but the novel never gets preachy, which I think young people would appreciate. The novel invites them to think about how they would deal with situations such those that Cyd is forced to confront.
I liked this book because it dealt with serious issues such as the difficulties in family relationships and premarital sex in a way that was realistic. Both of these are issues that most teens are confronted with at some point in their lives. Though there were serious issues, the book has funny moments as well, and Cyd's narration kept the mood light for the most part. Cyd does learn some lessons by the end of the book, but the novel never gets preachy, which I think young people would appreciate. The novel invites them to think about how they would deal with situations such those that Cyd is forced to confront.