Where It Began by Ann Redisch Stampler

Description: A teen’s world comes crashing down in this compulsively readable YA debut that’s as literary as it is commercial. Gabby Gardiner wakes up in a hospital bed looking like a cautionary ad for drunk driving—and without a single memory of the accident that landed her there. But what she can recall, in frank and sardonic detail, is the year leading up to the crash. As Gabby describes her transformation from Invisible Girl to Trendy Girl Who Dates Billy Nash (aka Most Desirable Boy Ever), she is left wondering: Why is Billy suddenly distancing himself from her? What do her classmates know that Gabby does not? Who exactly was in the car that night? And why has Gabby been left to take the fall? 
As she peels back the layers of her life, Gabby begins to realize that her climb up the status ladder has been as intoxicating as it has been morally complex...and that nothing about her life is what she has imagined it to be. (for more info click here)


Epic Wins:

• Gabby- Truth? In the begginging her boyfriend-obsessed-self really got under my skin but I knew there was a bigger picture, that she wasn't that kind of character. She was sarcastic and funny and seemed to talk to herself... a lot. 
• You have to admire the way Stampler pulls a story together. You never really knew where Gabby's story would lead next, and though you could predict the ending you couldn't figure out the strange maze that she created to get there. 
• The Realistic Coma- I have now read three- yes three- books that involve the main character suffering from a coma. This one was the first one NOT to offer special side effects stemming from a coma- well besides a major headache. 
• "It's not that she's a nun. It's just she is trying to figure out how to be me." pg 369 of the arc
• "Uh Viv?" John says, not merely concious but coherent, "The point us, he wasn't a very nice boyfriend."" pg 354 of the arc. Call me weird but I loved watching her father sober up and start actively helping his daughter. It was like somehow this trama had woken him up. 
• Message 1- Don't let a boy (or girl) be the deciding factor of your happiness. Don't tie yourself so completely to him that when cut off everything dissolves.
• Message 2- We have to figure out who we are and sometimes that means making mistakes- like Billy -and learning from them. 
• Message 3- People will lie to you but you have to be able to face the truth, especially when you don't want to. You have to take it like it is because the truth hurts but being duped hurts just slightly worse. 
• Message 4- The people you discount could end up being the ones who help you in the end. Like Gabby's dad and her therapist. They stood up for her when she least expected it. 

Epic Fails:

• Sex, underage drinking, and Billy are the only things that annoyed me and really the first two didn't really bother me all that much. 

Overall:The Realistic story of a girl and exactly where it began. Sarcastic and witty with a dash of girl-hoplessly-falls-in-love creating an original tale. 


just sayin,
-Kare