Book: Just Another Girl by Melody Carlson
Rating: 3 Stars
Release Date: January 2009
Summary:
Aster Flynn is stuck. She has to spend all of her “free” time with her younger sister, Lily, who, though fifteen, is mentally handicapped. At age seventeen, Aster should be hanging out with friends, dating boys, and working at a fun job. But her dad’s MIA, her mom is always at work, and her older sister Rose is too self-centered to give her any help. It’s not that Aster doesn’t love Lily–it’s just that for once she’d like to be able to be a normal teenager. So when a cute popular guy seems to take an interest in her, Aster hatches a plan. Somehow she has to get her workaholic mom and deadbeat dad to be the parents Lily needs so that Aster can have a life of her own. But can she ever get her parents to start acting like adults? Is this new guy worth the trouble? And, most importantly, will Lily get hurt in the process?
Overall:
Aster Flynn is pretty much a modern day Cinderella except without the evil step-mom and stepsisters. Instead she has Rose, the older sister who only cares about herself, her mom, who is mostly absent, and Lily, her mentally challenged younger sister.
Aster is basically Lily’s caregiver. Every day she helps her get dressed, drops her off at the rec center, picks her up later, and then fixes dinner and helps her get ready for bed. With all this on her plate Aster has no time for a life of her own.
Aster never really minded this until she met Owen, the popular, handsome guy from school who seems to be showing an interest in her. The only problem is, with Lily around, there is no time for a date of any kind and nobody else is willing to take care of her.
Finally, Aster manages to persuade a friend to babysit while she goes out with Owen but Lily proves to be too much for anyone but Aster to handle. When Aster arrives home after her date she finds that things are chaos. The next morning when Aster wakes up her mom has already left, without a word about the night before.
As Aster tries to find her independence Lily gets worse. Aster finally decides to take control and make her mom take some of the responsibility for Lily so that Aster can have more time with Owen. But one thing is niggling at the back of Aster’s mind. Is Owen really the person she wants to be spending her time with?
Just Another Girl was a good book. Not exceptional, not horrible. The story was actually great but most of the characters seemed a little underdeveloped. I would probably recommend this book as a quick, cute read. It was very insightful and shows a realistic life of someone dealing with a mentally challenged child but also with a happy ending. As a warning, this story is also a little bit religious so if that is something that doesn’t appeal to you, this is not the book for you.
Just Another Girl can be ordered here.
