A Not-So-Simple Life; Diary of a Teenage Girl—Maya, book 1
by Melody Carlson
Published by Multnomah Books (July 15 release)
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Reviewed by Jamie Driggers
Fifteen-year-old Maya Stark knows two things to be true: life isn’t fair, and it isn’t going to improve. Sure, her life looks great from the outside. Her dad’s a famous pop star and she lives in Beverly Hills. But when you get right down to it, life isn’t all that grand for Maya. Her mother is a drug addict who goes missing for days on end, her father is always off on tour and Maya is raising herself while struggling with her identity as a biracial teen.
Maya’s plan to emancipate herself from her parents seems like it may come to fruition when she lands a series of progressively better jobs. But when her mother’s flakiness keeps disrupting Maya’s life and employment, Maya’s original assessment of life looks pretty accurate. Or is it?
This was a really quick but thought-provoking read. The entire story is told through Maya’s journal, so you get a lot of no-holds-barred internal struggle that moves really fast. I came to really like Maya and her “green” lifestyle (even though I am one of those carnivores she so doesn’t understand). I really wanted her to succeed and have a better life, whatever that might be–with or without her parents.
I appreciated that Maya had real issues rather than just “teen” issues. Maya, interestingly enough, leads a pretty squeaky clean lifestyle, probably mostly due to her irresponsible parents. She seemed to strive to be the adult because someone needed to act like one.
This book with its substance is so much better than many of the young adult books with their endless mean girls and strings of parties. I highly recommend it.
Armchair Interviews agrees this is a good young adult book.
Author’s Web site: http://www.MelodyCarlson.com