A review by penandpencil
Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian

3.0

There was a lot that I liked about this book, it is very readable, well written, characters are well formed and multi dimensional, and the story feels like something we have not read 1000 times before.

This is what I believe is a ‘message’ book, but the problem is that I am not exactly sure what the message was supposed to be. By the end I was extremely confused about what exactly Natalie’s issues were. Her behavior regarding her relationship with Connor is never really explained IMO. Maybe the confusion was the point, idk. I do get that lots of young women may not be comfortable with sexuality, or just trying to figure things out in a world of so many mixed messages, but Natalie’s reasons just seemed hollow.

Her harsh judgment of her peers is probably typical of her age and also reflective of how harshly she judges herself. Although there were a lot of times that people called her on her nonsense, some of her observations were spot on (i.e. Mike), and I liked that she had strong convictions even if they were not necessarily well-informed, something that I think is pretty typical of this age group as well.

The other thing that really stood out to me was that the adult reactions to the cellphone photo and Natalie’s attempt to do something about it were totally bizarre and kind of irresponsible.