Publishers Weekly Review
In Frazier's playful and unflinching debut, a pregnant 18-year-old pizza delivery driver dreams of a new life. The unnamed narrator, overwhelmed by anxiety about her pregnancy and her family, wants out of the house she grew up in, where she lives with her mother and her boyfriend, Billy, in suburban L.A. Enter Jenny Hauser, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mother who orders a large with pepperoni and pickles for her fussy son. From the moment Jenny opens her door, the narrator nurses a dream of escaping with her ("I wanted to take her hand and invite her to come with me whenever I ran away"). The narrator comes to befriend Jenny and learns she is unhappy in her marriage; thinking of how her dead father abused her mother, she assumes Jenny is abused as well. At home, the narrator turns cold toward Billy and her mother, and embraces her isolation the way her deceased abusive father once did, by turning to alcohol. Her frequent intoxication colors her view of her relationship with Jenny, whom she manages to kiss once and makes a valiant but dangerous and unnecessary effort to rescue. Frazier's characters are raw and her dialogue startlingly observant ("The environment can suck a dick--I'm driving my F-150 to work again," one regular tells her). This infectious evocation of a young woman's slackerdom will appeal to fans of Halle Butler and Ottessa Moshfegh, and will make it difficult not to root for the troubled and spirited pizza girl. (Jun.) |
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Eighteen and pregnant, Jane struggles under the realizations that she's too much like her recently deceased alcoholic father, her former classmates refuse to recognize her, her boyfriend has thrown away his future for the sake of the baby, and she is largely ambivalent about the upcoming child. She looks at the lives of the customers she delivers pizza to, imaging what the rest of their days are like. She thinks she finds a kindred spirit in frazzled mother Jenny, who quickly realizes Jane is not excited about the baby. Finally seen, Jane becomes obsessed with Jenny and projects too much of herself onto her, leading to a series of very bad decisions. Jane's first-person narration immediately draws readers in, connecting with her disconnectedness, even as they wish she would pull herself together. Her lack of preciousness and wry sense of humor keep Jane's loneliness and resulting actions from veering into maudlin tragedy. Instead, the end reveals that people's lives are rarely as Jane imagines, whether they be one of her favorite pizza customers or her Korean immigrant mother. VERDICT Jane's strong voice and lack of post--high school direction will resonate with teens. A strong choice for browsing collections.--Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington County Public Libraries, VA |