11.15.2012

Fingerprints of You

Title: Fingerprints of You
Author: Kristen-Paige Madonia
Pub: 2012; Simon and Schuster for Young Readers
Pages: 272
Genre: Coming of Age, Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult (?)

Think you had it rough as a teenager?  Try living Lemon's life:

I mean, first, your NAME is LEMON. (Strike one, yes?)  Then you fool around with this tattoo artist that your mom has the hots for - a lil' bowchickabowwow - and lo and behold baby coming soon. Which opens a whole lot of daddy issues since yours has been MIA since birth.

Oh and it of course it doesn't help that your mom has her very own commitment issues and stability is a word you only know via the dictionary.

Yup.  That's Lemons' world at the tumultuous age of seventeen.  So what's the solution?  Of course a road trip clear across the country to Cali with your bestie to seek out your pops and get ANSWERS to life's most difficult questions.

This was a coming of age story like none other.  And seriously, can you look at the cover again?  Le gorgeous.  My buddy Fizzy Jilly gabbed about this book and I was all - ooooooh shiny and also that story line sounds fascinating

And about halfway through it I finally figured out what vague film atmosphere it reminded me of.  How many of you remember the flick Mermaids with Cher? Winona Ryder? It totally had that vibe going for it: Mother working through her own issues that cause daughter to have issues similar to deal with which eventually leads to aha moments as all grow up and become a closer family.



Well done Madonia because here the characters are pretty quirky.  And who can resist a main character who is a book nerd?  I mean, holla, can't we all relate?  PLUS I love the descriptions of San Fran.  Duuuude, I want to go there like yesterday.  The food! The stores! The scenery! Loved all of the details.

Final thoughts: While typing this up I realized that the book was published by S&S for Young Readers which is interesting because while reading the book itself and EVEN THOUGH the protagonist is a teenager, I never ASSOCIATED it as a Young Adult book.  I know there are some serious thoughts in that statement because first I was all well, it didn't read like fluff in the way that most coming of age young adult fic does but as soon as I THOUGHT that I felt guilty, like, YA contemporary is all teddy bears and text messages.  Which I know it's not.  But still.  I can't deny that thought.  So I should ponder this a bit more.  Why I disassociated this as a YA book even though our girl is obvs a teenager.  If you've read it, any thoughts to help me figure that one out?

2 comments:

  1. You must come to San Francisco some day! Then I could drive up and meet you! Plus, it's a wonderful city to explore.
    And I had the same YA WTF moment. I think it's because right from the get-go you know Lemon is lusting after her mom's boyfriend, and then there's the strip poker (or whatever), and the YA books I read as a kid WERE NEVER LIKE THAT. So ergo...not YA.

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  2. I really enjoyed this book as well and was also surprised that it would be considered a YA book. It certainly crosses age groups so that should expose the book to more readers, but I don't find this to exclusively sit in the YA world. Gorgeous cover, beautiful writing, vivid imagery - this book was a win/win all-around.

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