Monday, May 7, 2018

Ramona Blue - Julie Murphy

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever.

Since then, it’s been Ramona and her family against the world. Standing over six feet tall with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona is sure of three things: she likes girls, she’s fiercely devoted to her family, and she knows she’s destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the adult of the family. Now, with her sister, Hattie, pregnant, responsibility weighs more heavily than ever.

The return of her childhood friend Freddie brings a welcome distraction. Ramona’s friendship with the former competitive swimmer picks up exactly where it left off, and soon he’s talked her into joining him for laps at the pool. But as Ramona falls in love with swimming, her feelings for Freddie begin to shift too, which is the last thing she expected. With her growing affection for Freddie making her question her sexual identity, Ramona begins to wonder if perhaps she likes girls and guys or if this new attraction is just a fluke. Either way, Ramona will discover that, for her, life and love are more fluid than they seem."


This book was nothing like I expected, but everything I needed. On the surface, it's a pretty straightforward story of every day life for a high school senior. But it's also a story about challenging our self-assumptions and not placing too much stock in the things we feel define us. Ramona is pretty sure she knows who she is, what she wants, and where her life is going, but when her childhood friend Freddie moves to Eulogy, everything she thought she knew gets turned upside down. She resists admitting to herself that things have changed because if they do...what does that make her? Where does it leave her? With all the upheaval in her life, Ramona has to decide if sticking to the plans she made and staying true to the labels she has assigned herself is worth sacrificing things she'd never let herself consider within her reach. 

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