Girl Unmoored

Girl Unmoored is a novel written by Jennifer Gooch Hummer. It takes place in 1985 in Maine, USA. Apron’s life is a living hell. Her mother just died and her father is about to marry their brazilian housemaid. She is mean, disrespectful and only she seems to see it. Worst: Marguerite, called M. by Apron, is expecting a child from her father. He also focuses on his job as a professor for Latin and his new book. As if this wasn’t enough, her best friend Rennie is trading her for that one girl, they both hated on, a newer, chicer version of Apron, Jenny. Apron is left alone and doesn’t know what to do. As she is a teenager, she fancies that one boy, that Jenny is after, too and it seems, that he fancies Jenny. Then she meets Mike, a good looking actor, who plays the lead role in “Jesus Christ Superstar” at a local theatre. Mike’s second job is the little flower shop “Second Appeal” that he runs together with his boyfriend Chad. Mike and Chad are gay. Even worse: Chad has AIDS and the whole town treats them like outcasts. After discussions and discussions with her father, Apron works at “Second Appeal” during the vacation. During her time at the little shop, Apron gains important life lessons and recognizes that this job is way more than working with flowers.
The book has offered me a new view on the difficult topic of AIDS. Seeing Chad through Apron’s eyes and seeing the suffer he goes through caused by inhabitants and his illness made me think a lot. I also recognized that the author has maybe put herself into the story, or I am just fantasizing. Jenny Pratt is a blonde girl, who has everything and it happens, that the author herself is blonde and even more important: Her name is Jennifer. It is very common that authors portray characters in the books, like J.K.Rowling based Hermione on herself. The story was well written, but when I came to the middle, I hated this book. I hated how depressing and negative it was. My opinion didn’t change until I came to the last chapters. The ending was okay and better than expected. Girl unmoored gets six lemondrops (four lemons).