Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Another book in just one day. I tell you this cold is the best thing that ever happened to my reading.

First thing's first. A week or so ago, a commenter left this for me:

" . . . I'm looking for another book with the same key points (young adult/late teen, deep, powerful, meaningful love but with a tragic twist). . ."

I wouldn't say that Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld fits that description exactly, but I think you may find what you are looking for in this book.

The novel is about Lee and her four years of high school. Actually, it's a boarding school thousands of miles away from her mid-west town.

Lee is painfully self-conscience. Seriously. It's painful. Throughout the book, she never realizes, what I think, what really makes her special. The fact that she took it upon her 13 year old self to research boarding school, apply, get accepted, get a scholarship and actually GO to the school. Most people I went to high school with have never even thought of leaving Albuquerque.

I get that Lee feels like she doesn't fit in. We all feel that way. As her fuck buddy* tells her towards the end:

"I bet things would be easier for you if you either realized you're not that weird or decided that being weird wasn't bad"

Of course, this is easy for the smart, hot, sports jock who everyone loves to say. And it has to be said that the poor girl didn't realize she was becoming the fuck buddy. Of course, in the end, even I will admit that if I were in her shoes, even if I knew, I would accepted it too.

I find this book to be so mundanely interesting. I feel like nothing is going on, yet I can't stop turning the pages to find much of the same. It's not quite a train wreck you can't turn away from, but it certainly has pull. I mean, clearly-I read it in a day.

In addition, being 25, I can't tell if I am too far removed from high school that I don't remember feeling the way Lee does most of the time or if I really didn't feel that way. Not to say I enjoyed high school-far from it. However, I don't remember finding it this painful. Was I lucky? I certainly wasn't Ms. Popularity.

Maybe I just found that happy medium between realizing I wasn't weird and deciding that being weird wasn't bad.