Sandpiper - Ellen Wittlinger

So, after and while reading Rainbow party, I was casting about for a book on a similiar topic but, obviously, with a better message. Sandpiper came up on my radar (hmmm...too much time hanging around geeks?) so I gave it a try. Oh and also obviously, Doing It has so far beat anything else hands down, but it's also very guy-centric, and whether that really matters I was keeping my eyes peeled for a girly or a combo book.

Truthfully this book centers more on reputation than it does on actual sex. There's no sex in the book only the, well, social results. It was an interesting angle. But I'll get more into that momentarily. First, it's well written, unlike some books we might mention. It's full of angsty goodness, which was just fun to read.

It was one of those nights when the sky gets all streaky with orange, and the sun is radioactively red. From the cemetery you can look down over the sailboats in the harbor and all the old houses along Front Street with gardens full of tall flowers just comming out. Hammond seemed really pretty from up there, like a town anybody would love to live in. From a distance you couldn't see each individual jerk who made your life suck.

And some of the descriptions were just priceless.

Meryl McKee took a step back. She probaly didn't want anyone to think she was actually conversing with a bad influence such as me. Meryl is barfingly perfect: always gets As and keeps her skinny legs glued together like Popsicle sticks.

Between the chapters was poetry 'written' by the main character. While poetry's not really my thing I always appreciate little touches like this that good authors put in which just makes for a better crafted book.

Black sheep wear white shirts
So that when they dance
Under the black light
They look beautiful too.

And despite the seemingly obvious reference, THERE ARE NO GOTHS IN THIS BOOK. And it would have been really easy for the author to throw them in. We have two loner characters with issues which could easily have been morphed into the stereotype. I want to hug the author for not jumping on that bandwagon.

Now back to the content. As I said, there is no actual sex in this book. The main character is actually still a virgin, but only performs 'certain acts'. Her reasoning behind why she was so into that was very well done, and made sense. Her deterioating social standing, for lack of a better phrase, felt very realistic for a high school scenario, heck for any judgemental social scenario. It also adressesed the climate of a "she got what she deserved because of what she was" mentality. The author made it VERY clear in a number of ways that this was not the message, only a very disturbing attitude that had to be dealt with. (I'm being purposely vague. It's sort of obvious where the book intends to go, but that still no reason to give everything away.)

It's a good book. I'm still a little unsure how I feel about the message. The character wanted to change how people viewed her, and it was quite clear how truly hard that was going to be. But it brought up really good issues.

Second opinions please.