A review by liralen
Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl, by Joya Goffney
4.0
Great look at sexuality, shame, and taking ownership of one's options. This is a pretty message-forward book, but it's a very healthy message, and one that too many teens aren't exposed to. I also love the cast of characters: varied, opinionated, stubborn, hearts (most of them) in the right place, able to change with the times, even if it isn't always on Monique's time frame.
One thing I would have liked to see: Although both narrator and Monique clearly understand that Sasha-as-therapist is not the same as a real, trained (licensed!) therapist, I don't think there's ever a point when Sasha is just...medically wrong. And I'm very happy for her not to be wrong in a big way, but (since this is a message book anyway), I wouldn't have minded there being something relatively minor that she just...was wrong about...that could be cleared up later—because while friends and other teens and so on can be valuable resources, they shouldn't have to be anyone's primary source of sex education.
That said—I hope this finds its way to many, many high school libraries.
One thing I would have liked to see: Although both narrator and Monique clearly understand that Sasha-as-therapist is not the same as a real, trained (licensed!) therapist, I don't think there's ever a point when Sasha is just...medically wrong. And I'm very happy for her not to be wrong in a big way, but (since this is a message book anyway), I wouldn't have minded there being something relatively minor that she just...was wrong about...that could be cleared up later—because while friends and other teens and so on can be valuable resources, they shouldn't have to be anyone's primary source of sex education.
That said—I hope this finds its way to many, many high school libraries.