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A review by leahloura
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
tense
3.5
I really enjoyed this novel.
I wish I had read it when I was 15 and in love with a girl. Nancy Garden captures beautifully the immediacy of first love, and the purity and fear involved in falling in love with a friend.
To me, the novel felt more like it was more about Liza overcoming her internalized homophobia, as much as it was about the love story with Annie. Garden doesn't shy away from addressing how difficult it is to come to terms with your sexuality when you're surrounded by homophobia and prejudice.
I do feel that both characters could have been developed more deeply. I found the central conflict of the novel (the drama with Liza's school) to be very frustrating and anxiety inducing and it didn't offer much character development. It felt at times that the plot of the novel was centered too much around the homophobia that they had to overcome. Which was a little cliche, but understandable considering that it was originally published in the 80's. The homophobic remarks made by characters in response to Liza and Annie's relationship can be very triggering so TW to my fellow queer folks with religious trauma.
That said, I was wholeheartedly invested in their love story and couldn't put it down. Their relationship was so cute and I literally screamed with happiness into my paperback copy:
“Have you ever felt really close to someone? So close that you can't understand why you and the other person have two separate bodies, two separate skins?”
OH MY GOD. If you know you know.
I definitely grew to love and relate to both Liza and Annie. It's hard to say whether this book reopened or healed some old wounds. Maybe both. The metaphor of the snow monster was very striking and stuck with me. Liza lost sight of the goodness within herself because of the hurt she felt her relationship caused others. She saw her sexuality as a beast she had to fight. It wasn't until she could live with the seeming paradox that her 'beast' was pure and made of love that she found peace inside herself and was able to reconnect with Annie.
A really sweet book. For sure a winter read.
I wish I had read it when I was 15 and in love with a girl. Nancy Garden captures beautifully the immediacy of first love, and the purity and fear involved in falling in love with a friend.
To me, the novel felt more like it was more about Liza overcoming her internalized homophobia, as much as it was about the love story with Annie. Garden doesn't shy away from addressing how difficult it is to come to terms with your sexuality when you're surrounded by homophobia and prejudice.
I do feel that both characters could have been developed more deeply. I found the central conflict of the novel (the drama with Liza's school) to be very frustrating and anxiety inducing and it didn't offer much character development. It felt at times that the plot of the novel was centered too much around the homophobia that they had to overcome. Which was a little cliche, but understandable considering that it was originally published in the 80's. The homophobic remarks made by characters in response to Liza and Annie's relationship can be very triggering so TW to my fellow queer folks with religious trauma.
That said, I was wholeheartedly invested in their love story and couldn't put it down. Their relationship was so cute and I literally screamed with happiness into my paperback copy:
“Have you ever felt really close to someone? So close that you can't understand why you and the other person have two separate bodies, two separate skins?”
OH MY GOD. If you know you know.
I definitely grew to love and relate to both Liza and Annie. It's hard to say whether this book reopened or healed some old wounds. Maybe both. The metaphor of the snow monster was very striking and stuck with me. Liza lost sight of the goodness within herself because of the hurt she felt her relationship caused others. She saw her sexuality as a beast she had to fight. It wasn't until she could live with the seeming paradox that her 'beast' was pure and made of love that she found peace inside herself and was able to reconnect with Annie.
A really sweet book. For sure a winter read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia