a little friendly advice by siobhan vivian
so, it's always a little tricky when you read a book written by someone you know and/or are friends with. as excited as you might be for it, there's a little anxiety too, because what if you don't like it? what if you think it's bad or hackneyed and cliched or riddled with inaccuracies and false language. it's not as though it's a manuscript that you've been asked to critique. it's a book, the finished printed product and if you find fault with it there's nothing really to say or do. should you try to avoid the topic, hemming and hawing and making up excuses for all the reasons why you haven't had a chance to read it? should you try to find something to admire in the book and focus on things like "that really lovely description on page 27 of roasted chicken"? do you lie and say you loved every single bit of it or be bluntly honest and say you hated it, or try to frame the sentiment more diplomatically and offer something along the lines of "it isn't my cup of tea"?

alas, sadly enough there have been an occassion or two in the past when i've had to opt for one of the above options. happily though, i had no such dilemna facing me upon reading a little friendly advice by siobhan vivian, know in these parts as siobhan_says_so. totally loved it. so much so that i stayed up until like four in the morning on a night when i had to work at nine-thirty the next day, just so that i could finish it. frankly, i've not been feeling a lot of young adult literature lately. most of what i've tried i've not been able to finish and the piles of a.r.c.'s taking up too much space in my apartment are just not pulling me towards attempting them. so to stumble upon one that i not only felt like finishing but actually loved? complete bliss.

a little friendly advice tells the story of ruby, a girl from akron (go ohio!) who is turning sixteen as the book begins. coming over to celebrate are her three friends - beth with whom she's been close to almost her entire life, maria who joined their circle a year or two ago and katherine, a more recent acquaintance about whom ruby isn't quite sure about yet. but, making a surprise appearance at the festivities is ruby's long lost father, who she hasn't seen since he ditched her and her mom when ruby was a kid. what follows the awkward encounter is a week or so of ruby doing some serious dealing (sorry siobhan if this is a terrible summation - they aren't my strong suit). in the years since her father left, ruby "went a little crazy" and at sixteen she thinks she's finally came to a point where she's okay with who she is and the life she has. but jim (the dad) showing up brings a lot of shit to the surface, including issues with her mom, katherine and, maybe most of all, herself. that being said, it isn't at all preachy or issue-oriented or touchy-feely, because you should all know by now that i hate that sort of thing. it's all very smart and witty and most of all true.

and by true i don't mean "yes, this did happen/could happen/has happened exactly like this." although maybe there's a bit of that. it's more in terms of the way that the book is written. i think what i most admire about it is how real ruby is and how true her voice seems. like, even when she says or does things that you don't want her to (or, more accurately, doesn't do stuff that you really want her to do), it's understandable because you know that that's how the situation would probably play out in real life. ruby makes the same sort of excuses that you've found yourself making, tells her the same sort of stuff to justify someone else's behaviour that you've told yourself, and for the same reasons. she makes sense and she feels real in a way that unfortunately book characters don't always seem to.

plus, she has excellent taste in music and thrift stores and boys. in any case, the book doesn't come out for quite a while now, but when it does it is totally worth reading. i'll try to remind you ...