The Implosion of Aggie Winchester by Lara Zielin

genre: young adult

When your mom is the high school principal, life can be really lame. And for Aggy, her solution is to "go Goth." You know, to wear all black, put on creepy black makeup and generally act like the world is yours to toy with. Look at her on the outside and, if she can help it, she'll scare the pants off of you.

But we get to see the inside of Aggy - and there is a lot of hurt and fear there. A lot of wanting to be loved and needing acceptance is under her pretty terrifying exterior and she's so afraid of loosing the tiny spot she's carved for herself at school that she'll keep any of the "real" Aggy buried deep.

The Prom? SO lame. Aggy wishes it didn't even exist but then, this year, the election for prom royalty turns into a catastrophe on so many different levels that Aggy cannot escape from it. And some serious choices have to be made.

For me, honestly, all the brouhaha over prom felt a little scripted. I wasn't dying to find out how that part sorted out, but Aggy and her personal life, her relationships were more intriguing. It's so hard to learn to stand up for yourself when all you want is to be loved - if nothing else, Zielin captured that teenage angst just right. The language is as foul as you'd imagine when someone is trying to hard to tick everyone else off. And, for those who care, there are a couple more graphic scenes to wade through. While the ending felt a bit too wrapped-up-with-a-bow, I liked the message it gives to teens, about making things right and giving your parents a chance.