"Where We Have to Go" by Lauren Kirshner


For Lucy Bloom, the transition from childhood into adulthood isn't going to be easy.  As an awkward eleven-year-old, she is a devotee of cats and televisions most famous extraterrestrial, ALF.  Her father is a failed glamour studio photographer who currently divides his time between a dead end job at a travel agency and AA meetings.  Her mother is a former beauty queen from Bulgaria and current ESL teacher who tends to a family of mannequins in the backyard.

As Lucy tries to navigate adolescence in Toronto during the 1990's, readers witness a sweet and quirky coming of age in Lauren Krishner's debut novel Where We Have To Go.  Lucy grows from a young girl into a university student and along the way we watch her deal with the loss of friendship, bullying, eating disorders and the discovery of what it really means to be a young woman.

This is a cute novel with quite a few laughs.  It is easily relatable, especially to those who came of age during the 1990's.  Lucy Bloom is a character who will quickly grab hold of you. Her voice is smart and quirky and she gives you a new way of seeing the world.

I found that the book started off very strong, with me not wanting to put it down.  But through the middle it lagged a bit and I had some difficulty staying attached to the story.   However, once Lucy began her struggle with an eating disorder, it felt like it was no longer about setting up a story and the book picked again for me and I found myself heavily invested in it.  The last bit of the book was beautiful and touching.

Anyone who remembers the awkwardness of the pre-teen and teenage years will definitely relate to this book.  Lucy Bloom is a heroine for every young woman who struggled to be accepted and to find who she is and how she fits in this world.  Lauren Kirshner has done a great job in her debut novel.

I received this book courtesy of Random House of Canada.  The opinions expressed above are purely my own.

Comments

  1. KateMay 5, 2012 at 10:17 AM

    Sounds like a good one. I love how we're now getting "coming of age in the 90's" themed books! It always seems a little funny to me until I realize it was, like, 20 years ago! Yikes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ShanMay 7, 2012 at 12:30 PM

    I would be the same age as Lucy, I grew up in the 90's so I found it very scary that my teen years are now long enough ago to be looked back at in novels!

    ReplyDelete

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