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Summary
Summary
It's the summer before senior year and the alluring Angel is ready to have fun. She's not like her best friend, Inggy, who has a steady boyfriend, good grades, and college plans. Angel isn't sure what she wants to do yet, but she has confidence and experience beyond her years. Still, her summer doesn't start out as planned. Her good friend Joey doesn't want to fool around anymore, he wants to be her boyfriend, while Angel doesn't want to be tied down. As Joey pulls away, and Inggy tours colleges, Angel finds herself spending more time with Inggy's boyfriend, Cork. With its cast of vivid and memorable characters, this tale from the Jersey shore is sure to make some waves.
Author Notes
Beth Ann Bauman is the author of the short-story collection Beautiful Girls and the young adult novel Rosie and Skate , which was a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Booklist Editors' Choice, as well as a Booklist Top 10 for Youth in two categories. She lives in New York City but will always be a Jersey girl at heart.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
It's the summer before her senior year and 17-year-old Angel-who lives on a New Jersey resort island-finds herself contemplating life, comparing herself to her overachieving and beautiful best friend, trying to win back her ex-boyfriend, hooking up with other boys, and learning to keep secrets. In this audio edition, Jaclyn Gaines forgoes a strong New Jersey accent-except in the dialogue of a minor character or two-and turns in fun, engaging performance. She lends Angel a youthful voice that's perfect for the teenage girl. At times, Gaines could do more to distinguish between the book's other characters-some of the voices she creates are indistinguishable during dialogue. Still, Gaines's narration has momentum, and listeners will surely stick around until the end, wondering what the future holds for Angel. Ages 14-up. A Wendy Lamb hardcover. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
"I like Cork in the dark, the feel of his heat and his mouth hot and wet on mine. I'm not exactly me, and he's not exactly him. But here we are." Angel, a confident, sexually experienced teen who lives on the New Jersey shore, is a rare but welcome type of protagonist in young adult literature: a girl with a healthy libido and no shame about following where it leads. Still, she knows the damage that her secret summer fling with Cork, her best friend Inggy's boyfriend, could potentially inflict. Angel rationalizes the situation by telling herself she's basically a good person -- which is true -- and good people should be allowed to "fall" every once and a while. "Plus I don't love Cork. He loves Inggy and she loves him. They're meat and potatoes. I'm just a dessert. I won't let it go on too long." Bauman's novel will easily entertain readers as a steamy beach book, with Angel exploring all the freedom and pleasure summer offers. It also goes a level deeper in its presentation of teen characters entering their senior year of high school and finding themselves faced with choices, some more difficult than others. One (atypically harrowing) scene puts Angel at the hospital with a friend who has just delivered a stillborn baby girl, helping the young woman decide whether to view her daughter's body. Here and elsewhere in the story Angel isn't sure whether she says or does the right thing. But she tries her best, which is all anyone can do. christine m. heppermann (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Angel's ex-boyfriend is ignoring her attempts to get back together, and her best friend, Inggy, is always working on college applications. Angel simply wants to enjoy her senior year without worrying about the future, but as her search for fun leads to Inggy's boyfriend and other clandestine interests, Angel's carefree attitude begins to falter. Bauman, author of Beautiful Girls (2003) and Rosie and Skate (2009), writes insightfully about a hurting teen girl who hides her pain in the affection of men and the fleeting pleasure of attention. Although the book portrays Angel as a sexy, fun-loving girl, Bauman exhumes the emotional consequences of Angel's lifestyle and finally delivers her to the happiness she desires. There are a few explicit sex scenes which serve to enhance the depth of Angel's character and decisions. Angel's exploits undeniably make for an interesting summer, but her search for a safe, permanent happiness is what makes her an interesting character.--Fort, Bethany Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
IT'S all too easy for adults who write for adolescent girls to caricature their subjects, whether they're the snooty prep school girl, as improbably vicious as any "Real Housewives" cast member, or the artsy outsider longing to be understood. But some young adult authors, most notably Judy Blume, respectfully develop nuanced teenage characters who are capable of doing more than furthering a story line. In "Jersey Angel," an intimate comingof-age story, Beth Ann Bauman's portrayal of Angel Cassonetti, a 17-year-old girl who controls and enjoys her sexuality, manages this feat. Though Angel is the prototypical pretty high schooler of young adult literature, Bauman, who aiso wrote "Rosie and Skate," which was similarly situated on the Jersey Shore, successfully humanizes her. In the process, she creates a delicate and very real story about the way a teenage girl grows up - and in certain ways, apart, from her mother. At the outset, Angel, who lives with her mother, a single parent, is mature for her age, perhaps overly so. It's the summer before senior year, and Angel is trying to figure out what life has to offer beyond her experiences with small-town boys. She has a tight relationship with her more privileged and academically driven best friend, Inggy, who is heading off to college. (Angel walks out of the SAT in a panic attack.) She recently dumped her boyfriend when she felt hampered by her role as "the girlfriend"; and though she misses him, she amuses herself with other guys in his absence. The reader can easily imagine a constellation of formulaic paths Angel's life might follow: teenage pregnancy, academic failure, an implosion of self-esteem. But Angel's sexuality - and that of the other characters, for that matter - isn't the nuclear bomb your average True Love Waits meeting would have you believe. In fact, Angel tomcats around as much as, if not more than, any boy in the book. That she is on the pill and keeps condoms in her bathroom cabinet is stated matter-offactly. Likewise, her young mother, who is described as resembling Kirn Kardashian, doesn't conceal her pursuit of casual sex from her children, leaving them in the middle of the night for a lover's house. Angel's mother owns and rents out several beach homes on the Jersey Shore, and during the off-season, Angel lives in a house by herself, where she's allowed to come and go as she pleases. Off to ber ex-boyfriend's house at 1 in the morning she is cluck-clucked by her mom's exhusband as having "too much freedom." And while Angel's freedom is not entirely without consequence, it's refreshing to read about an adolescent girl who follows her hormonal urges without a fate worthy of an after-school special. Nor are her working-class roots and frequent partying automatically conflated with the loose and scary morals of, say, Snooki. Angel may never be anointed anyone's feminist hero or saint, but neither is she a victim. She's self-confident and easygoing about her romantic and sexual relationships in a way teenage girls are scarcely depicted in pop culture. But while Angel isn't reluctant about sex, she does struggle with where to draw the line and how it will affect the way she "turns out." She doesn't necessarily believe she's behaving immorally; rather, she's confused about what exactly her morals might be. Whatever the resolution to Angel's story, it is clear that with Bauman - whether she's Judy Blume's successor or not - the genre is in good hands. Jessica Wakeman is an editor at TheFrisfey.com, where she writes about women's political, societal and cultural issues.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Angel Cassonetti exists in the moment. Given a lot of freedom by her mother, the 17-year-old lives by herself in one of her family's Jersey Shore rental properties during the off-season, but she drinks and hooks up even when she's living with her family during the summer. She's never really paid attention in school or worried much about the future, unlike her friend Inggy, who's college-bound. But the summer before her senior year, when Inggy leaves for college visits and Angel's longtime, on-again-off-again boyfriend, Joey, says it's off for good, she finds herself wondering what comes next-and getting much too close to Inggy's boyfriend, Cork. While seemingly aimed at fans of raunchy reality television, this novel is Jersey Shore with heart. Bauman sometimes trips with awkward, scattered dialogue, and most of her secondary characters are stereotypes (the flighty mother, the perfect best friend, the sensitive ex-boyfriend), but Angel herself grows from flat to nuanced. Readers looking for a role model won't find it in her, but as she sees the effects of her freewheeling lifestyle (she's embarrassed by her failed attempt to take the SATs, hurt by classmates imagining her in a dead-end job after high school, and horrified after she discovers her mother kissing Cork), she promises herself that, "when I'm Mom's age, I'm going to know when to stop being a girl," and then realizes that her maturation must start now. Through it all, Angel remains her own person, independent, unashamed of enjoying sex, and determined to find her own way.-Gretchen Kolderup, New Canaan Library, CT (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Six months in the life of a proudly sex-positive 17-year-old from the Jersey Shore (but definitely not Jersey Shore). Angel Cassonetti's life is based on two things: her exquisite awareness of and facility at wielding her sex appeal, and her close, almost sisterly friendship with Inggy Olofsson. Pale and blond, studious and monogamous with her longtime boyfriend Cork, Inggy stands in sharp contrast to the easily tanned, curly brunette, scholastically blas and sexually precocious Angel. When Angel's longtime on-again, off-again boyfriend Joey tells her he's done playing games--"I don't want to sleep around. I want to sleep with my girlfriend"--she finds herself drifting through the summer before senior year. She begins a potentially explosive secret fling that she can't quite find a way out of, though she tells herself "I can stop it anytime. And I will. It's not cool. It just isn't." School begins anew, and Angel is forced to confront her future. How long will this secret relationship continue? What comes after graduation, if her carefree approach to school has made college a no-go for now? Aided by a strong evocation of the tourist-driven rhythms of life on the Central Jersey Shore and a satisfyingly complicated, modern protagonist, this quick read will please readers looking for both nuance and heat in their beach books. (Fiction. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
chapter 1 A whiff of seaweed blows in the window from across the bay, and the bed fills with sunlight. I reach for my sunglasses and have myself a long stretch. Maybe tonight will be a good time to see Joey, patch things up, and put a sweet ending on the day. The screen door squeaks, feet dash up the stairs, and the kids charge into my room--Mossy with a meatball on a fork and Mimi sloshing Coke from a glass loaded with cubes, just the way I like it. "Happy birthday!" Mimi shouts, plunking the wet glass on the dresser and jumping into bed with me. Mossy hands me the fork. "I couldn't decide. Heated up or not." "Cold is de-lish," I say, sitting up and taking a nibble. What service. "Gimme." Mimi reaches for my sunglasses. She slips them on, curls on my pillow, and stares up at me. "Oh, I wish I was seventeen." "You'll get there," I tell her. Mimi's short for Mimosa. She's ten. Mossy's eight. Mom was married to Tofu Bart when she had them, which should explain the names, and by the way, that's Mimosa as in the flowering tree, not the champagne cocktail. Mossy hands me a leftover valentine with hearts and Be Mine in big loopy letters. On the back he's written Angel, treat yourself to something special and taped three dollar bills. "Oh, my little man," I say, throwing an arm around him. He smiles shyly, dropping his eyes. "I didn't make a card," Mimi says. "And I'm broke, but I have a cheer." She gets my shakers from the closet and stands at the foot of the bed in a purple bikini with a dirty white boa looped around her neck. She stamps her foot and waves the shakers. "Angel is pretty! Angel is great! Angel is my sister And she goes on dates! Angel has a birthday And we'll have a cake--chocolate! Angel has boobs And they're not fake." She crashes to the floor in a split. "Oh brother," Mossy says. "Who has fake ones?" I say, chewing. "Nefertiti's mom. She just got them. They're bazoombas." Mimi crawls back in bed. "So, you like it? On a scale from one to ten?" "Loved it. Nine." She stretches out on the bed and sighs. "If I was seventeen then I could do anything I want. Date boys and be mean to them when I feel like it and nice to them when I feel like it . . ." "Why do you want to be mean to them?" I say. She tilts her head. "Because!" "I'm not mean to guys," I tell her. I take a sip of cold, fizzy Coke. Bliss. "But you break up with Joey Sardone." Mossy leans over and takes a bite of my meatball. "Not because I'm mean. Because we need a little break now and then to spice things up." She closes her eyes dramatically, and her cheeks grow rosy. "Oh, I want to spice things up!" "Angel," Mom yells. I lift the screen and hang out the window. She's standing in front of the house in a lime bikini top and jean shorts, holding a bucket and mop. She has a bandana tied around her hair. "Happy birthday, kiddo." She shades her eyes. "How is it you're seventeen? That practically makes me an old goat." "Hardly, Ma," I say. She shrugs. "Gravity's getting the best of me." Here we go. The truth is, with her long, dark hair, dark eyes, and upturned mouth, she looks kind of like a forty-year-old Kim Kardashian. We all look like Mom, especially Mimi. "Okay, cake later. Now we work." "I hate to clean!" Mimi yells, squeezing in next to me at the window. "Me too!" Mossy whines. "You think I like it?" Mom says. "We'll do it fast. Let's go. Mossy, where are my rubber gloves? Were you using them again for one of your experiments? Go find them." He rolls off the bed and trudges downstairs. We own three houses on the Jersey shore. Every summer we rent out two to some of the tourists who descend on our little barrier island like a stampede, which means we pile together under one roof. During the off-seasons, at least, we get to spread out and breathe. Mossy and Mimi live with Mom in the House, and I get my own place. But now it's time to clear out. I grab a Walgreens bag and start unloading my drawers--bikinis, panties, bras, tanks, shorts, jeans. I throw it all in. I wad up my sheets and blanket and shove them in too. Yup, we have three houses. My grandfather, Pop, bought the House years ago; then he won the Next-Door House in a poker game, or so the story goes, and old Mr. Zimmerman, who was a little in love with Mom, or a lot, apparently, left her the Corner House--my house. So three in a row, overlooking the bay. The moolah we make by renting has to last the rest of the year because Mom isn't cut out for nine-to-five, or so she says. "Here. Help." I throw Mimi my duffel bag. "Take the closet." She steps into my spiky sandals and admires herself. "Fierce." I empty the medicine cabinet into a shopping bag--undereye concealer, eight tubes of lip gloss, hair gel, Tylenol, a couple of condom packets, and my birth control pills. In the bag it goes. I squeeze out toothpaste and brush my teeth as I chuck in shampoo, soap, three kinds of conditioner, a loofah, and a razor. Mimi puts a sundress on over her bikini and swirls in front of the mirror. "Oh, I wish I was you . . . but still me." "So basically you?" I spit in the sink and toss the toothbrush and paste into the bag. "Basically." She teeters over in the sandals and looks up at me, her eyes all dark pupils. "Is it exciting to be you?" I swish out my mouth with a handful of water. "What a question, Meems. Is it exciting to be you?" "No," she whines. "I don't wear mascara. Or have a best friend like Inggy Olofsson. I basically hang out with Nefertiti. We just eat Popsicles and watch TV. I'm too pretty to be so boring." She lets out a tiny sigh and collapses to the closet floor. "You're such a snot-nose," I tell her. She tips her face up to me. "I can't help it." "Sure you can. Hang in there." I lean over her and start dropping clothes off the hangers, some of them raining down on her head. "One day boys will come a-knocking and everything else too. And then there'll be no look- ing back." "How exciting," she whispers. Have I been excited in a while? Maybe not. Maybe I'm due. Excerpted from Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
