LitPick Review
Michelle Taylor's What's Happily Ever After, Anyway? focuses on answering the title question in terms young adults can relate to. The characters she created are typical teenagers that readers can easily imagine having as friends, or perhaps representing someone the already know. She addresses important issues such as pre- marital sex, rape, abortion, dating, being a teenage Mom and even dealing with harassment in school. Taylor not only brings these topics to light but she does it in such a way that readers will be entertained, touched and informed all at the same time.
Miranda meets the boy of her dreams at a rock concert on her sixteenth birthday and quickly begins to believe she has found her Prince Charming. Though not a virgin, Miranda's disastrous relationship with a football star at her school has taught her to be more cautious with her body and more careful with her heart. Readers follow Miranda on a journey of self discovery as she talks to her parents about sex, deals with sexual harassment and an unexpected pregnancy. We suffer with her, agonize over her choices and hold our breath until the end of the novel.
Opinion:
Taylor does not preach to readers in this book. She manages to entertain readers while outlining all the options available to her heroine. There is no prejudice or judgment in this book. It is merely a look into the problems of an average teenage girl who makes a couple of wrong decision and provides a valuable lesson for young adult readers.
Through the magic of Taylor's storytelling Miranda's pain becomes their own, and her mistakes could possible become a life saving lesson for readers. More oriented towards girls, this book should be read by any teenage female who has questions about boys, sex or life in general for this book truly contains valuable life lessons. Recommended for readers 12 and up.
