Like many other YA contemporaries, the main girl in the story is on her way to discovering her identity except Ramona Blue thought she had it all figured out. She was sure she liked girls, only girls. She was pretty much sure she had no life outside of her small town and her meager savings were only meant for her sister’s soon to be born baby and was definite that her home will always be the too small trailer house. She has almost resigned and sealed her fate to this life when things start turning the way they weren’t supposed to, the catalyst of which seems to be Freddie, a childhood friend and shockingly a boy!
The story was written very well in the narrative voice of Ramona, a girl who is confused of so many things including her sexuality which she soon learns is something fluid. Her voice is very genuine, honest and her many struggles are relatable. She’s one of those teenagers who feels like she has no luxury of becoming a teenager but also learns that she can’t always be completely responsible for another person even if she wanted to.
At times, the narrative got tedious and that’s probably the only reason I didn’t give this more stars but the plot and the themes are very well explored and the story deliberately tells significant aspects of a teenager’s life that you don’t usually see in other YA books. In the end, Ramona still isn’t sure of anything, not even her sexuality because labels are just labels but to her, what matters is her freedom to choose.
My favorite line from the book: “Emotions are gross!” Lol.
