I hate the beginning of this book. Suspension of disbelief and all that. No one ever had their head lopped off on Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland. How do I know this? 1) if Disneyland had built the ride so that that could happen should you stand up while roller coasting, there would probably be a lot of suicides at the park and would Disneyland really want that?, and 2) a bar is put across your lap so you can't stand up. IMHO the author should have made up some nonexistent amusement park if she really needed a head to land in someone's hands in order to start off with "everyone gets a tragedy."

Okay. That's out of my system.

I liked this book. It took me a little time to. I never related to the main character, not to any of the characters, really. I was never rich. I was never popular. I was never on the debate team in high school after having ostracized myself from the popular crowd because I thought they'd rejected me (when they hadn't) because I had a car accident and couldn't be captain of the tennis team anymore because I couldn't play tennis because my knee was ruined for life. Switching characters, I was never the manic pixie dream girl -- sorry, I had to throw that in. I'd never heard the term before and I kept seeing it in reviews of this book and looked it up. It's a thing! I told you I was late to the party in another review.  Anyway, you get it. I don't relate to these characters. However, I was an insecure teen at one time, long long ago (long ago the teen part; present day I'm still insecure), and so it was fun to enter a high school world of today and watch everybody cope. The smart nerds of the debate team cope by being smart and witty and knowing things I've never heard of half the time. The popular crowd is shallow and basically unlikeable. Hmmm. Is all this stereotyping? You know what, it is. But never mind. I still liked the book. I guessed the "surprise" secret the love interest Cassidy revealed at the end of the story. I read a review that complained about that because the reviewer thought the secret was impossible. I disagree. Stranger things have happened. 

In the end this book is about friendships and jealousies and insecurities and bullying and all the things that go on in high school. It's about finding oneself which is something I can relate to.

I'll start off by saying I really liked this book. Then I did what I do, I read some of the one-star and two-star reviews.  And, you know what?  I agree with a lot of what they had to say. But the flaws that spoiled the book for those reviewers didn't bother me so much. I got caught up in Jessie's plight, in her old and new worlds. I liked reading her conversations with the mystery guy. (I accidentally saw who that was, so he wasn't a mystery for me--wish I hadn't seen that.) I wanted to finish this book so badly, I read from page 144 to the end in one sitting.  One of the things I liked best was the relationship between Jessie and Theo. I wish there had been more written here. I loved him standing up for step-sister Jessie against the bully. I liked seeing how this blended family was starting to blend. The book worked for me. What can I say?

Boy, am I late to the party.  This book was published in 1999.  I've decided to read a lot of YA novels and this one sounded important.  No wonder, though, when I was reading it, it didn't sound current; although in the era of MeToo, it is timely. I think the book is excellent. I enjoyed the writing and the story interested me. That's because I like character studies (fascinating characters, of course) and this book is all about the character.  We get a sort of stream of consciousness from this outcast girl as she drowns in her emotions and later finds her way to the surface. Sometimes I got a little tired of reading about the mundane activities taking place at her high school, but that fit story. The ending was too abrupt for me and that's my biggest complaint.