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NOTES ON A NEAR-LIFE EXPERIENCE
Olivia Birdsall
Laurel Leaf Books/Random House
Fiction
Hardcover: 0385733704
Paperback: 9780440421610
272 pages
Mia's father works all the time and is never home. Mia and her mother, little sister Keatie and older brother Allen are used to it. So why does everything fall apart when dad moves out? Fifteen-year-old Mia has had lots of experience with friends from single-parent homes, so it shouldn't be a big deal.
However, knowing that it's not the end of the world and actually coping with it are two different things. So Mia doesn't deal. Her mother is suddenly working all the time now, and Keatie is watching old home movies over and over again. One day, both parents forget to pick up Keatie at her violin lesson, so Mia gets a friend to drive her over there.
Allen tries to take care of all of them, but soon Mia realizes he has been cutting classes. Then she finds lots of empty liquor bottles. Is it her responsibility to take care of her brother?
To make matters worse, Mia's dad comes home from Peru with a new sexy girlfriend named Paloma. A disaster of a family birthday party shows Mia that ignoring these problems is only making them worse.
But when she and her siblings attend therapy each week, Mia tries to hide everything. Talking about the situation would be admitting there's a problem, and she thinks this is merely an adjustment period. After all, other things are going well in her life right now. Julian, Allen's best friend and her lifetime crush (and a mighty fine kisser), asks HER to the prom. Also, she is on the varsity dance team and in charge of all the choreography.
Mia's best friend Haley is not too thrilled, though. She knows something is going on, but Mia won't talk to her about it and doesn't treat her well when they're together. Furthermore, Mia convinces Haley and Allen to go to the prom together when neither really wants to.
Soon Mia is barely holding it together. She tries to plan a romantic prom night, which proves to be too much for her family to handle. Allen's problems come out in force that night, though the resulting issues do compel the family to work through their difficulties together.
Divorce might be pretty common in families, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with. Mia's struggles are realistic; in avoiding her problems she does what anyone else might do when faced with something similar. Readers of NOTES ON A NEAR-LIFE EXPERIENCE will find Mia an interesting and sympathetic character from first page to last.
--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio
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