It's My Party - Lesley Gore

Ditched: A Love Story

Author: Robin Mellom
Pages: 273
ARC Acquired from: Hyperion via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
Justina has a bit of a reputation. See, this one time at a party, she made out with two guys on the same night. This isn't really an isolated incident either. She and her best friend happen to like kissing, and so they decided, upon entering high school, that they might as well do a lot of it. Until that party where she got caught kissing two different guys and everyone started insulting her. Then, she swore she would not kiss another boy until she found boyfriend material. And she finally has in her new best friend, Ian. They're going to Prom together and she knows that the epic kiss will finally happen. If that's so, why does she start off the morning after Prom in a ditch, having been ditched (literally and figuratively).

Review:
Justina's story begins on the morning after Prom. She indulges in a bit of temporary amnesia, for the audience's benefit, not hers. She wonders about a tattoo, a bruise in the shape of a french fry and the various stains on her dress, even though it soon becomes apparent that she remembers everything. This is definitely the low point of the novel. It certainly does grab your interest, but I didn't appreciate the pretense that she didn't know what had happened.

However, even as her clearly perfect memory frustrated me, I loved finding out her story bit by bit. Justina drags her unfortunate self to the 7-11, the good one, and begins unloading her depressing tale of woe onto the clerk (Gilda), later joined by a customer (Donna). This method of storytelling is a classic because it works. Plus, I just loved the way the chapters alternated between the food she was fed at the 7-11 and the various injuries and stains she attained during the night before.

Ditched is one of those stories where every possible bad luck thing that can happen does. Of course, some of them are Justina's fault, but many of them are not. A big bit of the blame goes to her mom, who thought Justina should dye her shoes to match her iridescent blue dress from the thrift store. It was also mom's idea to have bought said dress, which turns out to be a magnet for stains and not made of the sturdiest stuff.

If you're looking for some good schadenfreude, Ditched will not disappoint. I certainly feel a little better about missing out on the prom.

Rating: 3.5/5

"Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone
Judy left the same time
Why was he holding her hand
When he's supposed to be mine"