I just finished reading, Not That Kind of Girl.  A 336 page realistic fiction book by an American author named Siobhan Vivian. This book was published on September 1, 2011.  Siobhan Vivian was born in New Jersey with lots of charm, even as a child.  So she writes her books to recreate the dramatic years of high school.  I decided to read this book because I had read several other of Siobhan Vivian’s novels and found them to be very intriguing.  This is why I decided to read this book.

 

In this novel, Not That Kind of Girl the main character, Natalie, has a lot of courage and persistence to not follow the usual high school footsteps. She doesn’t want to fall in love, or be popular, or even socialize with anyone besides Amber, her best friend. All she wants is to have a good reputation, to be a good student, have loyal friends, and her classmates to elect her for student council president. In Natalie’s mind all of those things will lead her to a good future. But, what if her plans don’t work out how she wants them to? What will she do then? Natalie never anticipated those possibilities. Her everyday, best friend, Amber splits apart from her and Natalie becomes devastated. Mostly confused about how this could happen, so Natalie becomes desperate for anyone to be at her side, even if it means ruining her future.

 

I liked the way the author connected Natalie’s changed commitment to follow the average path of a high schooler to the mistakes she thought she would never take. When Natalie starts to break her commitment with herself that’s when the suspense really escalats. The whole story was a jumble of surprises leading up to the big scene, that (as the reader) I didn’t expect to be there. The Climax of the plot was also very shocking to hear. After all that time Amber and Natalie have become friends again? And after Natalie had worked so hard to become the president of student council, she wants to quit? It wasn’t like Natalie to give up. Especially on something that she once found so important to her. The character development throughout the book changes a lot. Natalie starts out as a sophisticated individual seeking to be a good student, but slowly changes to a judgmental student. But soon without even realizing it she soon becomes exactly like some of the girls she was judging. Finally, I was interested in this passage when Natalie says, “this was why trusting boys was like drinking and driving.  Sure, some people took the risk.  One or two beers never feels dangerous at the time.  And now everyone who drives and drinks gets into an accident.”  I like this passage because it perfectly describes how Natalie felt about high school.  If she didn’t take the chance the first time, she wouldn’t have known what she would be missing out on in life.  Natalie would never know how it felt to be in a big group of friends.  Maybe that is good, but there is always the downfall.  Not That Kind of Girl is a 7 out of 10.