It was okay. My creative writing workshop is making it hard for me to read books, now. I keep thinking of how an author could have written something better. And the fact that everything is a draft, not a finished project. ( )

College experience, about a girl living in a dorm for the first time- at twenty, having just transferred into a larger university for her final two years, so she feels a bit out of place. There’s a somewhat brusque roommate. A love interest who’s very tall and lanky, with light hair and a friendly face, always smiling. There’s hours spent in the beloved library, studying or just avoiding people. There’s insecurity and awkwardness around peers, and one professor in particular who tries to be a guiding element but meets with conflict from the student. The protagonist Natalie isn’t much of a reader, at least of fiction. She studies Russian history, finds delight in memorizing all the minute details about events and historical figures. Starts off not knowing many other students and only gradually makes friends. Her studies begin to suffer partway through the book, and then take a serious downward slide- due to becoming overly focused on a boy she gets involved with, in an unhealthy way. He seems nice upfront, but it soon becomes obvious to the reader that he has just one reason for being interested in her, and she takes that to mean a lot more than it does. Even when the red flags start flying, she makes excuses to herself and continues to meet with him, though he treats her worse as time goes on. Natalie is kind of desperate to gain the ubiquitous college experiences, so she goes to parties, drinks, takes up smoking, and eventually sleeps with her uncaring boyfriend. It was starting to feel very dismal to the reader.

Then she goes home for a holiday break- and suddenly a lot comes into focus when the family is revealed. They’re all blue-collar workers, sneer at her attempts to gain a college education, constantly insult and criticize her. Now the insecurities and self-doubt make sense. Add to that her struggles to makes sense of loosing a brother to suicide years earlier (which no one in the family will talk about) and I started to really feel sympathetic for her. Warning: there’s talk of self-harm and suicidal ideation in this novel. I was really glad at the end to see Natalie finally give her icky boyfriend the boot, find a better roommate, get back on track with her classes, discover some direction for her future and then meet a decent guy. The ending felt a bit too quickly wrapped up, but I was satisfied that it put this character on much better footing than she’d been for most of the novel. Reading this was like watching someone nearly wreck their life- akin to She’s Come Undone or The Book of Ruth. But it has a much more hopeful feel and I rather liked it in the end. ( )

Natalie transfers into U Conn and has to grow up fast. I would hate her life, and probably would not have made the same choices. This was basically a downer, but does capture post-adolescent angst. ( )

As someone currently finishing up their college experience, I think that I can speak with authority when I say that this is one of the most true-to-life stories about a post-adolescent woman that I've ever read. I identified with a lot of what Natalie felt and experienced throughout this novel. While her many of her experiences or decisions were different from my own, they definitely mirrored those of some friends and acquaintances of mine.Weitz gives an excellent and accurate account of what is reality for many young, college-age women...To continue reading this review, visit my blog, The Eclectic Book Hoarder. ( )

This book was almost painful to read. Not because of the writing - that was pretty good; almost stream of consciousness but with better grammar and sentence construction. No, the painful part of this was the main character, Natalie Bloom. A twenty year old college student just going to UConn after spending time at community college first. She has no self-esteem and isn't sure how to interact with the other students around her. Weitz makes us feel her pain, her uncertainty. The novel covers the semester that Natalie "grows up" if you will, and describes, in painful detail, all the false steps Natalie takes.

Maybe the reason this was so hard to read is that many of the feelings expressed by Natalie are so familiar. I imagine that most every woman in the world has felt them at some time.

This book could spark many lively discussions in book clubs. ( )