Read: Jan 2nd - Short story 'After Alex'

January 2nd

Read: Grl2grl by Julie Anne Peters, Short story 'After Alex'

It's all very American. I'm not against US literature but when it reeks in clichés and fakery, it really puts me off. And don't even get me started on having someone play with fire, then another character use that to talk about a sexual fire between the two other girls. Talk about clichés.

So the story is about a girl who was in love with someone called Alex, before the story began she received an email from Alex saying she wanted them to get back together. All very well, but the idea that Alex, who'd been through the process of coming out as gay, couldn't even understand that Rachael needed more time before PDAs. That annoys me.

I appear to have strong issues with this short story. The whole book really. Two stories now have mentioned a Gay/Straight Alliance in school (since they're all set in high school), I should Google that, find out more about if it exists. What I really seem to dislike about the book is how American it is, how PRIVILEGED America it is. Teenage girls going on ski trips on an average day of the week. It reminds me of a romantic comedy where you just know the main characters are loaded.

As I said, I'm not against the book being American but as a British young person I want something I can relate to. I don't relate to pom pom culture full of ski trips and second homes. I relate to honest, well built characters I can actually care about. Yesterday's story felt more real to me, the girl in that was infinitely more interesting. After all, she didn't date someone who dumped her to go back to the ex she dumped to be with her in the first place. What sort of message is that sending out?!

Oh Christ, now there's cutting? If you can't deal with an issue fully, don't even bring it up if you ask me. The idea of that added to the story makes me cringe. That was the only, briefest of mentions. Pointless.

And so the story ends with the girl taking back her cheating ex, yeah, way to go "role models".

I know not all fiction needs to be role model based but I feel something so aimed at teenagers has something of a moral responsibility to represent life in a certain way. For this story there was no message, except don't accept an apology from someone who seems to flit between you and someone else or you'll only get hurt. Actually, that's not the message, it's something I tool from it because I have the maturity to understand that love doesn't mean you're blind to someone's idiocies.