it’s all your fault (that I lost my quote #2)

Okay, so I lost my quote for the quote challenge. I had it all picked out, but apparently I didn’t bookmark it. If I can’t find it soon, I’ll make it up. 🙂

So, I’ll get back to the Quote Challenge, and next time I’ll remember to tag people like I’m supposed to, but I felt like writing this first anyway:

I read this article, and that led me to a pretty terrific YA novel called It’s All Your Fault (great title, right?) by Paul Rudnick.

I don’t read a lot of YA, but this was a good read. The two main characters are teenage cousins, one a home-schooled Christian girl, the other a superstar teenage actress, fresh out of rehab.

I know Rudnick mostly from his humor pieces in the New Yorker, and the hilarious column he used to write in Premiere magazine as “Libby Gelman-Waxner.” So, I was not surprised that the pop culture gags were sharp — Heller, the young actress, is about to star in a mega-YA movie franchise called Angel Wars, and her backstory is pretty much equal parts Miley, Lindsay, and Jennifer (Lawrence).

As I say, Heller is just out of rehab, with a major motion picture to promote, and so Caitlin, the very religious cousin, has been called in to try to keep Heller on the straight and narrow.

And the book does take very seriously the pressures that are exerted on young actresses, particularly those who star in huge franchises. And on young home-schooled teens raised in very religious households, too.

But, just when the satire of YA franchises and fandom starts to get a bit thin (some things are difficult to exaggerate), the third of our trio of main characters appears.

She’s a thirteen-year-old girl, dying of cancer, who is scheduled to spend a day with the young actress, her idol, and she turns out to have very specific ideas about how they are going to spend that day. These are not the same dreams that she shared with the Make-A-Wish people.

So, we get to find out exactly how far three teenage girls, in a somewhat-stolen car, can go.

It’s a good read, and quite moving at the end. Some of the plot elements are standard and predictable, but good writing can always overcome that.

Next time: Another quote!