Review: The Green by Karly Kirkpatrick

Title: The Green
Author: Karly Kirkpatrick
Format: Ebook
Publisher: DarkSide Publishing
Publish Date: January 15, 2012
Source: I received a copy from the author. This did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a young adult fiction fan.
• You don't mind mature/heavy topics.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Seventeen-year-old Ariceli Pisa is a senior at the prestigious Cambridge High School and has her sights set on Northwestern University. She's a cheerleader, a member of the National Honor Society, and a drug dealer.
That’s the secret she has to keep from her best friend Naomi, in addition to the fact that she’s madly in love with Naomi’s ex-boyfriend. 

Trying to balance her life at Cambridge High with her new demanding job keeps her teetering on the edge of disaster."

My Two Cents:

This book is definitely off the beaten path when it comes to Young Adult fiction. It's very different and I really enjoyed it. Ari is a honors student and a drug dealer. Both sides of her are completely different and completely unexpected.

Because of the heavy subject matter, I would caution readers. While this book doesn't really depict drug use, only drug selling, it still does discuss drugs. This is very, very mature subject matter and should be read thusly.

I think the most interesting part of the book is Ari's struggle to reconcile the two parts of herself. She has dreams of becoming a journalist and newscaster. She wants to go to Northwestern, a very prestigious university. She goes in to selling drugs in order to give her mom money so that they can stay in the apartment that allows Ari to go to a very good high school. It's a hard load to bear but Ari is strong and makes it work until everything crumbles around her. But, luckily, there is redemption and it makes the ending better.

There were a couple loose ends that it would have been nice to see tied up; however, the story matter is so compelling that the loose ends really don't take away from the book.

Bottom line: This is a good book with a very mature subject matter.