By: Beth Ann Bauman
Synopsis:
It's the summer before senior year and the alluring Angel is ready to have fun. She's not like her best friend, Inggy, who has a steady boyfriend, good grades, and college plans. Angel isn't sure what she wants to do yet, but she has confidence and experience beyond her years. Still, her summer doesn't start out as planned. Her good friend Joey doesn't want to fool around anymore, he wants to be her boyfriend, while Angel doesn't want to be tied down. As Joey pulls away, and Inggy tours colleges, Angel finds herself spending more time with Inggy's boyfriend, Cork. With its cast of vivid and memorable characters, this tale from the Jersey shore is sure to make some waves.
Excerpt:
I love the moment when the guy is mine, when the spell is cast. Everything else falls away and there’s only me and him. I wonder if there’s a right love and a wrong love. Is getting naked with a cute guy and watching his eyes soften and feeling my heart pound high in my chest—is that a little like the real thing?
Q&A:
Q: What does Angel have in common with every teenager?
A: She’s trying to figure out her future. She’s trying to figure out what love is and what it means to
love someone.
Q: Your novel is nothing like the show, Jersey Shore. It’s much and about the actual
people who live on the Jersey shore year round, but what do you say to anyone who connects your book to the show?
A: This isn’t Jersey Shore. I promise. It’s about real teenagers and real emotions.
Q: Some readers have written off Angel because she betrays a friend. Yes, Angel likes sex and she doesn’t always make smart decisions, but like each and every one of us, she’s a complicated
person. She’s both beautiful and ugly, good and bad, wise and unwise. Complicated characters
are compelling to read about because they’re real. Why include explicit sex scenes in the novel, rather than the usual “fade to black”?
A: It’s funny because there aren’t many sex scenes (really! count ‘em), and what’s there is kept
short. I’ll say this, though—sex is important to the novel because it’s important to Angel and
part of her self concept, so these scenes aren’t gratuitous. Sex is an activity like any other, and in
a realistic book that explores many dimensions of the character it’s important to describe her sex
life. I also want to be true to a character’s sensibility, which means using the kind of words that
reflect her personality. If, for instance, I were to write a sex scene from Inggy’s perspective, I
might say “I touched him…,” but Angel is a bawdy girl and she’s going to be more direct. She’s
going to say, “I touched his dick.”
Q: Do you think you’ve started a wave of edgier, more realistic YA novels?
A: What I hope is that a wide range of YA fiction can be embraced and enjoyed. There are many
different types of teens, and in Angel I’d like to think I’ve given voice to a character we don’t
often hear from.
Connect with Beth:
Jersey Angel on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12384951-jersey-angel
Beth's Website: http://www.bethannbauman.com
Buy Jersey Angel today!
I actually just started this book today, like not even 5 minutes before I wrote this comment. It was so interesting to hear the author's comments on it. I have never watched The Jersey Shore, so I won't be able to say it was like it or it wasn't.
ReplyDeletethis book looks really good to read and its so awesome you got to ask the author questions about the book. This Book is added to my list of books to read. :)
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