Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn’t Have)
By: Sarah Mlynowski
Publisher: Harper Teen
Published: June 7, 2011
Genre: YA
Rating:
2 girls + 3 guys + 1 house – parents = 10 things April and her friends did that they (definitely, maybe, probably) shouldn’t have.
If given the opportunity, what sixteen-year-old wouldn’t jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe “opportunity” isn’t the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: “Lied to Our Parents”). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up “Skipping School” (#3), “Throwing a Crazy Party” (#8), “Buying a Hot Tub” (#4), and, um, “Harboring a Fugitive” (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.
What 16 year old wouldn’t jump at the chance to live parent-less with a friend? That is exactly what happens for April when her father moves away in the middle of the school year. Although, he is under the assumption that April is staying with her friend Vi and her mom, only… her mom is actually away on Broadway. What happens in those handful of months is all cataloged in this book.
It starts off with April waking up to her phone ringing. Her and Vi just had a crazy birthday party last night and there are people passed out everywhere and the place is a mess. Oh yeah, and the person calling?… April’s father who’s on his way to surprise her for her birthday. Then it skips back to the beginning when it all started and sometimes skips to things that happened prior to her father moving. Then it skips back and forth a bunch of times. Just when I started to get into the story, it would jump and skip on me. The segments were never long either, it would literally be April and Vi go to the grocery store, then the story jumps to something else. I just had a hard time fully getting into the story.
However, I did enjoy the story if not for the humor aspect of it. I also liked that one of the characters who is sexually active and has unprotected sex ends up with an STD. A lot of books skip the “what if’s” in sex and I like that the author included a little consequence to unprotected sex. There were parts that were so insane and out there that I had to laugh at some things. Like the fact that you can rent a hot tub for weeks on end for the base price of $800?
Pretty much from the get go I knew how everything was going to turn out and wasn’t surprised by the big climatic part in the story. I would more or less give it 3 1/2 stars but I am rounding up here because it was an entertaining read in the end.
April’s car dies and her and Vi call Dean and Hudson for a ride to school. They are late and when the lady at the office calls them out on it April tells her about her car. Dean jumps in with
“The funeral will be after school. It would mean a lot to all of us if you could make it.”
I still have to read this one but I liked your review!! Specially the part that deals with the consequences of unprotected sex – I agree it’s often really not addressed!
gerat review, I actually really liked the way it jumped about and stuff… but I have to agree with your Favourite Part, that was HILARIOUS! 😀
I like that the book deals with the negative parts of sex. It doesn’t have to demonize it but too many YA novels only portray sex as roses and chocolate. I liked how it was dealt with in Sisterhood of the Traveling pants too.