Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Mia never thought she'd be the child of a broken home. Yet when she's 15 years old, one day her father just up and moves out. As her family life crumbles, her love life is finally coming together. Julian, her brother Allen's best friend and her longtime crush, has finally noticed her--and being with Julian makes her happier than she can put into words.
Meanwhile, her mother has disappeared into work, her brother is skipping school and acting weird, and her father is cohabitating with a frighteningly sexy Peruvian woman named Paloma. Mia wishes the divorce would just go away so she could focus on Julian . . . but she can't ignore her problems forever. In this honest, witty, utterly accessible winner of the Delacorte Press Contest, first-time author Olivia Birdsall creates an authentic and lovable teenager in Mia Day.
Fifteen-year-old Mia feels like a ghost watching her own life when her parents' arguments escalate into a separation, triggering counseling sessions, strange behavior in her brother and sister, and a new connection with her brother's best friend.
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Publishers Weekly Review
Mia, 15, is the second of three children whose parents suddenly decide to divorce. In her upper-middle class California neighborhood, she senses she'll be stigmatized by this, but is "tired of avoiding feeling sad by feeling numb" (the "near-life experience" of the title). She processes her fears and questions in episodic vignettes detailing the changes her parents' split has wrought on herself and her siblings. Newcomer Birdsall is a smooth writer and punctuates her heroine's self-absorbed navel-gazing with gimlet-eyed observations and wry humor. "It's hard to take the government seriously," Mia notes, "when the Terminator runs your state." The build-up to the prom, which ends disastrously, is, however, all there is in terms of plot. The author introduces interesting threads about growing up in Yorba Linda, the birthplace of Richard Nixon, and a romance with Mia's brother's best friend but does not fully develop them. The heroine's epiphany-that in order to work through her problems she's going to have to admit to her patient psychotherapist that she has some-may not be climactic, but there's succor here for kids in similar straits. Even teens whose parents' marriage is intact will likely enjoy Mia's world-weary view. Ages 12-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 Up-Fifteen-year-old Mia Day's life changes drastically when her parents separate. Suddenly Mom is working more and isn't home to cook dinner. Mia's dad has taken up with a sexy Peruvian woman. Her brother, Allen, is acting out. All is not bad in her life, however. Her brother's friend Julian, whom Mia has had a crush on since forever, begins to notice her. She's finally old enough to learn how to drive. Her dad takes her on father-daughter "dates." Finally, Mia's shrink enables her to break through the logjam of repressed emotions she's had about the divorce and to begin to grieve her loss. Divorce and first love are old themes, but the author's spare style, her likable characters, and the witty voice she's given her protagonist set this novel apart. Its short chapters should make it popular with reluctant readers.-Catherine Ensley, Latah County Free Library District, Moscow, ID (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Almost without warning, fifteen-year-old Mia's tidy family life begins to ""parallel a bad soap opera."" Her workaholic father moves out, her older brother starts drinking, and her little sister regresses. As for Mia, she's going to counseling--but refuses to admit that anything's wrong. Short chapters, snappy dialogue, and realistic sibling relationships help keep this problem novel contemporary. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Book Review
Mia's vision of her perfect upper-middle-class family lifestyle abruptly changes with very little warning or explanation when her father moves out. Household routines and rituals so comfortably familiar for 15-year-old Mia, her siblings and Mom fade away. As the middle child, Mia recounts not only the negative impact divorce has on older brother Allen and younger sister Keatie, but effectively relates her own feelings of loneliness and isolation, despite the other good things (new boyfriend Julian) that are happening in her life. With Mom withdrawing into her work and Allen developing a drinking problem, Mia feels the weight of responsibility as she reflects on her present through flashbacks of a happier time with Dad's reliable parenting and attention. Written in a realistic, bright, honest, sometimes droll voice, Birdsall's debut portrays the unfortunate side effects of divorce from the perspective of a confused and unhappy young teen who views her parents' behavior as immature and selfish when compared to herself and her siblings. As in life, there is no happily ever after here, just poignant realization that life's circumstances must be worked through and accepted with a great deal of contemplation, understanding and counseling. (Fiction. 13-16) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.