The You I've Never Known

I read this for a book review assignment, so I'm going to be lazy and just post that assignment here, with hopes that if my professor sees it she will realize that I am not plagiarizing some rando nobody on Goodreads and am, in fact, the same Amity that she knows from class.

Seventeen-year-old Ariel is finally settling down after years living on the road with her abusive-yet-charming father. With this newfound stability, Ariel begins to explore her identity, with a focus on her burgeoning feelings for her best friend, Monica. Confusing Ariel even further is her attraction to Gabe, the nephew of her father's latest conquest: through free-verse inner monologue – a staple of Hopkins' work – Ariel must navigate her feelings for both friends. Sections of Ariel's life are broken up by the prose narrative of Maya, another seventeen-year-old who escapes her abusive, Scientology-obsessed mother by running off with an older soldier after she gets pregnant; however, she soon finds out that she may have left one bad situation for another. The lives of Ariel and Maya intersect in ways that careful readers may pick up on before the ultimate reveal, and these intersections genuinely pull what could be considered a bloated novel together.

Hopkins' free-form verse makes this seemingly hefty book a comparably quick read, and some sections truly read like poetry. Unfortunately, her dialogue can seem stilted and unnatural in comparison to the lyrical inner monologue she crafts. This exchange, for instance, is between Ariel and Gabe, when Ariel is telling him she may be bisexual:

“I've never actually tried either boys or girls, but truthfully, I seem to be attracted to both. I've got an excellent friend who happens to be a lesbian, and our relationship is very close to love at this point, but whether or not that will become sexual, I don't know”
Comparing the above line to the following bit of verse illustrates the difference in Hopkins' writing:

“Sometimes I wonder if I am
only flesh, bone, and blood, or might
I be a spark of stellar fire, carried
through time on the tail of astral wind?”

Regardless of dialogue, fans of Hopkins' other works should enjoy this latest outing. All of her signatures are there: poetry, a myriad of pressing issues (sexuality, identity, homophobia, and the 9/11 attacks are just some of the topics covered), and complicated family dynamics; all that's missing is a catchy one-word title like Crank or Impulse.

—
3.5/5; it was good, as all of her stuff is, and the fact that it is based on parts of her real life experience is tragic and I'm glad she is raising awareness of the issues presented in the narrative. It didn't connect with me, but I'm glad it exists.