I don't know either: What My Mother Doesn't Know (Sonya Sones)

 Since I finished On Writing, I've started burning through a few books over the past week.  I took two evenings to read What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones-- which was really more like 2 1/2 hours of reading. It was a particularly fast read because it was written in lyric poetry (which is almost so common now that it's a slacker's version of story telling).  I enjoyed having something light-hearted and easy to read, but I'm ambivalent about whether or not to recommend it.

The story follows a teenage girl (almost 15) named Sophie who is boy crazy and has two equally boy-crazy girlfriends.  Sophie's parents are on the verge of a divorce and Sophie is trying out what it means to be an attractive young woman.  She seems to feed on the attention and is desperately in love with her new boyfriend Dylan. The only problem is that Dylan and Sophie don't really seem to have anything in common and we later find out that Dylan's mom has some issues with anti-Semitism, which doesn't bode well for Sophie since she's Jewish.

Sophie also begins to entertain the acquaintaince of a fellow chatroom-goer... but then she starts to feel guilty and luckily finds out he's a bit more pervy than what she's looking for.  Sophie particularly kicks herself for spending so much time with the pervert because she was toying with the idea of meeting him in person. 

Meanwhile, Sophie secretly entertains the idea of getting affectionate with a nerd named Murphy that she often spends time feeling sorry for.  Her thoughts keep creeping up on her and she stifles them when possible.

Overall, the book was compelling because Sophie has some rebellious moments and I kept hoping she'd have some more-- since I was curious about the book title.  I was hoping for something really juicy that would put her in a bad situation that she'd need to deal with.  I was a bit disappointed in this way in that I never really felt like there was a climax.  Sophie mainly has a series of small rebellions that we can only assume come from being a teen and/or come from her misdirected angst regarding her parents' impending divorce. 

I'm torn in that I liked that there wasn't MAJOR drama, but I also didn't feel like I could take away any lessons either.