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Molly E. Lee
May 7, 2019
Entangled Teen
Blurb: I should’ve kept my mouth shut.
But Wilmont Academy’s been living in the Dark Ages when it comes to sex ed, and someone had to take matters into her own hands. Well, I’m a kick-ass coder, so I created a totally anonymous, totally untraceable blog where teens can come to get real, honest, nothing-is-off-limits sex advice.
And holy hell, the site went viral—and we’re talking way beyond Wilmont—overnight. Who knew this town was so hard up?
Except now the school administration is trying to shut me down, and they’ve forced Dean—my coding crush, aka the hottest guy in school—to try to uncover who I am. If he discovers my secret, I’ll lose him forever. And thousands of teens who need real advice won’t have anyone to turn to.
Ask me anything…except how to make things right.
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SASCHA DARLINGTON’S REVIEW
When I began reading Molly E. Lee’s Ask Me Anything, I experienced a touch of déjà vu because the plot is similar to a Swoon romance I read in January, which also featured a sexually inexperienced teenage girl doling out sex advice. While both are very well written with good characterization,
Ask Me Anything is grittier, delving into more complicated topics regarding sexuality and gender as well as the ramifications of leaping into a project, albeit well-intentioned.
Ask Me Anything really scores in a number of ways. Frankly, I’ve gotten fatigued by the number of YA novels in which the main character is being raised by a single mother (or father) who just doesn’t cut it while the father (or mother) either has a second family and can’t be bothered or is just totally removed from the picture. The teen is therefore forced to survive on her/his own. For both Amber and Dean their parents are there. They are supportive. And, in the case of Amber’s parents, they totally rock. I so appreciated this fact! Communication is a huge theme in Ask Me Anything. As long as the lines are open to communication, relationships flourish.
It was also refreshing to read about a geek who hasn’t been pigeon-holed. She wasn’t a project to be worked on or relegated to some lower peer grouping. Perhaps because her parents instilled in her enough self-esteem. Perhaps because her parents were there in her life.
The blog that Amber creates shows just how far we’ve come and, unfortunately, how far we still have to go. When I was a teenager, back in the dark ages, I learned about sex through…you got it…reading. But topics that are discussed in Amber’s blog just weren’t discussed anywhere when I was a teenager–not in the books I read (and I was even then an eclectic, voracious reader) nor in any classroom.
As for Amber and Dean, they get each other and I enjoyed reading about them. They have a teasing kind of chemistry, but, because Ask Me Anything incorporates romance, you know that someone is going to let someone down. This was handled well with both characters, in fact, all of the characters behaving in a realistic manner.
Ask Me Anything is for readers of YA fiction who like their stories to be on the more realistic side.
I received an ARC in exchange for a honest review.
rating:
4 butterflies and a ladybug out of 5 butterflies
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