title: Forever
author: Judy Blume
genre: young adult romance
published: 1975
pages: 192
source: randomly bought a copy at Target last week
first line: Sybil Davison has a genius I.Q. and has been laid by at least six different guys.
rated: 3 out of 5 stars
The saga of Katherine's and Michael's love is a joyous one, filled with all the wonder of "the first time." They meet on New Year's Eve and become completely involved with each other. It's an idyllic affair—until they're separated that summer...
About:
I always felt that Judy Blume is one of those authors I missed out on. I never read her as a teen and didn't even find out about her until I was an adult. Well, I guess it's better late than never.
The story starts off with Katherine and Michael meeting at a New Years Eve's party. The two are seniors in high school. Michael has a date to the party, but Katherine catches his attention and he winds up getting in contact with her the next day. The two begin to date. Michael has slept with one girl already, where Katherine is a virgin. The couple want to have sex, but Katherine is hesitant.
When they do finally sleep together, the two are in love and think they will be together forever. Katherine's parents are concerned because she begins to try to change her college plans in order to be situated closer to Michael. He is the only thing that matters to her. They make her go to a summer camp and work for a few weeks during the summer after senior year, hoping it will get Katherine's mind off Michael for a while.
Meanwhile Katherine's fellow classmate becomes pregnant. No shocker there, see the first line quoted above.
Katherine's best friend Erica, is in a relationship as well, and has issues of her own to deal with.
My thoughts:
It's funny because now that I read this as an adult and mother of a teenage son, I
was almost weary of what Katherine and Michael would do.
After I caught myself being judgemental to Katherine's behavior, I stopped myself.
I focused more on Katherine and Michael's storyline and tried to remember what it was like being that age when hormones are running rampant.
There's a few things going on in the story with Katherine's best friend, her sister and her classmate as well. You get to see different issues these teenagers are dealing with.
Although this is technically classified as young adult romance, I'm old-fashioned and I think due to the graphic sexual scenes, this one is for ages 17 and up.
Judy Blume's writing is frank and open as the characters in this story discuss and have sex. I do think she does a good job at writing teenaged characters.
On the way home I thought, I am no longer a virgin. I'll never have to go through the first-time business again and I'm glad-I'm so glad it's over!
Still, I can't help feeling let down. Everybody makes such a big thing out of actually doing it. But Michael is probably right-this takes practice. I can't imagine what the first time would be like with someone you didn't love.
p. 98
Katherine and Michael are doing things that teenagers reading might have wondered about, but were too embarrassed to ask. In reading this book, teens reading might have actually learned something helpful, that Planned Parenthood will give free birth control pills for instance.
Then again, this book was published in 1975 way before the Internet was readily available for anyone seeking questions about anything.
Nowadays, teens reading this one might just find it old-fashioned or think it's even tame compared to what they already know about sex.
