Jumping off Swings

Ellie has sex with boys who make her feel wanted and beautiful and then never call again. Even seemingly decent Josh, a virgin, leaves right after their tryst and never speaks to her again. It turns out the condom "slipped off" (?) and she gets pregnant. The next nine months are narrated by four charaters—Ellie, Josh, and their best friends, Corinne and Caleb. Ellie's and Josh's families are filled with stock dysfunction—from Ellie's shrill, uptight mother and perfect-on-the-outside home to Josh's washed-up, hard-drinking father and hapless mother. The plot of this novel is tired, but Corinne and Caleb, at least, are mercifully convincing and thoughtful. Each, of course, comes from a stable family. Caleb's single mother is the novel's moral center. The blaring contrast between stable kids from loving families versus lost kids from dysfunctional families oversimplifies a complex subject. Knowles writes fluidly, and though Caleb's and Corinne's scenes shine, Ellie and Josh never engage enough to set Jumping Off Swings apart in the genre. - Amazon.

                          My Review
OH MY GOD. I loved this book a lot. I tend to say I love every book I blog about, huh? Haha well it's because I do! It was a bit confusing for me at first because you're reading from 4 people's perspectives and at first I didn't understand or know who they were switching too but I think that was my own fault. I read it while riding home from Chicago, and this book made me cry. It was easy to be in the character's minds and feel what they were feeling, sympathize. Of course- Ellie was the most I sympathized for and felt the most connected to. This is by far one of the very best books I have ever read. I will reccomend it to anyone.