Jersey Angel is different from most YA books because, frankly, there’s a lot of sex in it. It looks like a fun summer read, with a girl in a bikini at the beach on the cover. But it isn’t that, really. It’s definitely not for everybody, because the protagonist isn’t a super sympathetic character. Seventeen-year-old Angel is promiscuous and not a very good friend at all. But it’s raw and true to some teens’ experiences.
Angel has a couple of younger half-siblings she’s close with and her chill mom gives her way more freedom than a lot of teens have. She sort of has her own house, after all, except during the summer when her family rents it out to tourists. She also has two half-sisters on her dad’s side and strained relationship with her stepmom. She works occasionally but spends most of her free time at the beach and riding her bike around to hang with her various friends.
Angel lives for pleasure and barely bats an eye when her best friend’s boyfriend surprises her one night with a kiss. She enjoys sex and doesn’t want anything more than that out of a relationship, even though her semi-boyfriend Joey wants to make their relationship official. She finds it baffling that he’s called things off because she won’t. I get the feeling that him breaking up with her is the first hit her confidence has taken. Still, she’s oblivious to how shallow she really is. When she takes up with her friend’s boyfriend for real but in secret, she does feel bad, but it doesn’t stop her. Angel does grow over the next few months, but the novel doesn’t go where you’d expect it to. It’s just a nice little portrait of real life, bad choices and all.
Bauman does a great job of making a not-very-likable girl who’s about as different from me as possible into someone I at least find interesting to read about. The dialogue is spot-on—Bauman really nails Angel’s voice, as well as the other characters’. There are also all the little details that make her world real (Joey’s new interest in fancy cheese made me laugh).
Buy Jersey Angel