Thoughts on : Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin

Posted by Kay on April 26, 2018 5:18 pm in 4 stars reads | 2 comments

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
Genre : Fiction
Stand alone
About the Book  :

Aviva Grossman is a bright, ambitious congressional intern with a promising political future ahead of her until she makes the mistake of having an affair with her very married boss … and writing what she thinks is an anonymous blog about it. When the affair dramatically comes to light, it’s not the popular congressman who takes the fall, it’s Aviva–and her life suddenly seems over before it’s hardly begun. Slut-shamed and hounded by the media, she becomes a late-night talk show punchline.

Determined to rebuild her life on her own terms, Aviva changes her name, moves from Florida to a small town in Maine, starts her own wedding planning business … and decides to continue a surprise pregnancy.

But when “Jane” decides to run for public office, that long-ago mistake–an inescapable scarlet A–trails her via the Internet, threatening to derail her life yet again. It’s only a matter of time until her daughter finds out who her mother once was–and is forced to reconcile that person with the one she thinks she knows …

My Thoughts :

This book made me smile!

Gabrielle Zevin is the author of one of my favorite books I never reviewed, The Stories Life of A.J. Firky. Even though Young Jane Young sounded like a very different story, I knew I had to read it – and it came so close to being a favorite, too! There’s much to love about it still though, so let’s talk about it!

The first thing to know about this book is that it’s told in five parts, each narrated from a different character. Honestly, I felt this was both a strength and a weakness of the book. I loved that the story wasn’t totally linear, and that we got to see how each girl or woman was impacted by the events. Gabrielle Zevin writes her characters with a lot of heart, and while they all stood out from one another, I enjoyed them all almost equally, imperfections and all.

However, the fact that the book doesn’t cycle back to the previous characters also left me feeling slightly disconnected from them. As soon as I started understanding them and enjoying their story, they were taken away.

I also didn’t particularly enjoyed the fifth and last part. The ending should have been the strongest part of the story, but the author chose a specific format (which I won’t spoil here!) that, while fun by itself, didn’t really fit the tone of the story or my expectations for the conclusion.

Negatives aside, I tremendously enjoyed Young Jane Young. It’s witty and honest but also heartwarming. The dialogues are fresh and the writing itself very engaging. I’m usually not a fan of cheating stories, but here the different perspectives allow us to see it from all points ov view, to have empathy for both those wronged and in the wrong.

Despite its lackluster ending, I really enjoyed this book and would happily recommend it to fans of contemporary fiction looking for a quick and entertaining read.