Me, Him, Them, and It
By: Caela Carter
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: Feb. 26, 2013
Genre: YA
Rating:
ME is Evelyn Jones, 16, a valedictorian hopeful who’s been playing bad girl to piss off THEM, her cold, distant parents. HIM is Todd, Evelyn’s secret un-boyfriend, who she thought she was just using for sex – until she accidentally fell in love with him. But before Evelyn gets a chance to tell Todd how she feels, something much more important comes up. IT. IT is a fetus. Evelyn is pregnant – and when Todd turns his back on her, Evelyn has no idea who to turn to. Can a cheating father, a stiff, cold mother, a pissed-off BFF, and a (thankfully!) loving aunt with adopted girls of her own help Evelyn make the heart-wrenching decisions that follow?
Hmm… I really had trouble rating this book. It wasn’t that it was poorly written because it’s not but I just wasn’t a fan of the main character. I found her to be spoiled and extremely childish over everything. Which may have been the idea since she is only a teen but I would hope most 16 yr olds know that having unprotected sex NUMEROUS times will eventually result in a pregnancy. I was hoping that as the story progressed that Evelyn would grow and mature as a person but apparently she just spiraled down and got worse.
The story pretty much consists of Evie deciding should I or shouldn’t I. Should she abort the baby or shouldn’t she? If she doesn’t abort, should she keep the baby or give it up for adoption? She never makes up her mind until the very last possible second. Looking back, maybe the author wrote the character like that because she didn’t want to seem “pro” anything when it came to teen pregnancy. Either way, I found the wishy washy thoughts of a spoiled (borderline stupid) girl a bit tiresome. I wish something had come of the book by the end but alas I didn’t feel sorry for her, for her actions, or for the decisions she made in the end.
The one good thing that can be taken away from this book is the consequences of having sex, when you are not prepared to start a family. She made some poor choices both before conception and after that not only affected her and the baby but the father, his family and Evie’s family as well.
“It’s true. I don’t want to have to make this decision. I don’t want to have to face my parents, or the nuns or Todd or anyone. I want to abort myself.” -Evie
I saw this around and got curious because I was a teen mom too. I’d probably won’t like it as much because Evie will remind me too much of myself… and who wants that?! LOL
P.S. Sorry haven’t been around much your blog this week, been a little busy. Will make up! And please give Equal Parts a chance, you might end up loving it.
Evie does sound like a difficult character, and perhaps a bit naive, it’s a shame she didn’t show much growth in her personality