Tuesday, May 15, 2018

P.S. I Miss You by Jen Petro-Roy - NO


Petro-Roy, Jen.  P.S. I Miss You, 310 pages. Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan), 2018. $17. Content: Language: PG (4 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: G.  

Evie misses her sister Cilia, who has gone to live with their aunt in a remote town because of her teen pregnancy.  Evie feels like her parents forced Cilia to go away because they are strict Catholics.  Evie is developing romantic feelings for her best friend, June, but is worried what her parents will think if they find out.  Evie has to figure out why Cilia isn’t coming home and what to do about her relationship with June.  

This book was not my favorite.  First of all, the letter format felt forced, especially because Cilia doesn't reply out of the whole 310 pages of letters from Evie.  No teenager is going to write someone for an entire year if they don’t get answers.  Second, I felt like the author was pretty judge-y about the Catholic religion and not very respectful of their beliefs, and June causes Evie to question her beliefs because she is an atheist.  Which also makes this book hard to place because the character is 12-13 years old, but teen pregnancy and challenging religious beliefs seems older.  Third, (spoiler alert) the sister died in childbirth (which is hard to believe with modern medicine and seemed like a manipulated plot twist) and the parents didn’t tell Evie for almost a year, but when Evie finally finds out all of a sudden her parents are okay with the idea of June and Evie together, Evie forgives her parents, and the family is happy again-not believable at all.  

MS – NOT RECOMMENDED.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.

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