Pure. Unplanned.  Perfect.

That’s exactly what Nick, a popular and good looking guy, wanted from summer.  And it started out that way when he hooked up with Dani and they have a casual relationship.  What I would call ‘friends with benefits.’  He’s simply having fun without the commitment.

Pure.  Unplanned.  Perfect.

But then he meets Sasha and she’s different.  He surprises himself when they get really serious, he even thinks that he’s in love.  After losing their virginity with each other (they’re sixteen) and having a grand old time, they have a moment in bed where they realize just how serious being sexually active is.  And it scares Sasha so much that she breaks off the relationship.

Nick is devastated.  As if the break up is hard enough, he is dealing with his divorced parents and his best friend since childhood coming out of the closet.   But it’s not long before Sasha reenters his life, only this time it’s on Christmas Eve and it’s to tell him that she’s pregnant.

Nick is reeling.  And understandably so.  Neither knows quite what to do about the situation but Sasha insists that she does not want to get back together.  She’ll “figure something out.”

I Know It’s Over is ultimately about teen pregnancy, teen culture, teen sexuality, first love, family relationships, sexual orientation, friendship, actions, decisions, and consequences of ones actions.

What I did like:

1. I thought that the sex scenes could have gotten extremely explicit.   Nick’s happiest when he’s having sex.  They are in bed a lot.  I’m not one to read books with a lot of sex and I’m not one for extreme details and luckily this book did not provide them as much as it could have.  I was expecting worse so was surprised that details were glossed over.
2. The fact that it was a teen pregnancy story told from the point of view from the guy.

What I didn’t like was lots and lots of assumptions and beliefs that are not once challenged or expanded on.  For example:

1. It’s totally great to have a sexual relationship at the age of 16.  Absolutely nothing wrong with it.  In fact, Nick’s dad gives him condom money.    I would have liked to seen more conversation based around the pros/cons and the responsibility one has entering into a sexual relationship.  Yes, she got pregnant but it seemed as though having sex when so young was presented as a totally okay thing.  I needed the book to explore the morals a bit more and perhaps the characters would have had more depth if that was the case.
2. Drugs and alcohol.  If you get caught, you get a slap on your hand.  But who cares.  They make you feel better and that’s what matters.  I would have liked to see some consequences from their use.
3. Homosexuality.  I mention this because to tell you the truth, I’m not 100% sure why this storyline was in the book.  Likely it was included because it furthered the exploration of  teen sexuality, but the book already had so many other issues regarding teen pregnancies that it’s inclusion made the book go over the top.
4. Abortion.  Not a single person has a second thought about abortion.  Including the parents.   Everybody was an advocate with no dissenting voices.  Nick keeps saying, “It’s not really a baby yet.”  To tell you the truth, I was bothered with this statement simply because nobody offered up the opinion that it was a baby.  I needed opposing voices.  No other options besides abortion were ever discussed.  Adoption?  Nope.  Keeping the baby? What and ruin their future?  Abortion was naturally the only solution.  I would have liked to see some deeper decision making on this one and a further exploration of the issues.
5. When somebody has a problem, you run to your friends house to “clear your head” for a while.  I thought it was odd how many times the characters would run off to a friends house to hide out instead of facing the problems head on.  Yes, friends are great.  I couldn’t have survived high school myself without them.  But everybody seemed to be hiding out half the time.
6. The parents reactions to the pregnancy are so unbelievable to me that I had a really hard time buying it.  Nick tells his father about the pregnancy the same night that he finds out about it.  His father tells him, “Let me know if there is anything I can do”  and then basically turns around and goes back home!  He calls in occasionally for updates but he does not get involved in any type of decision making, offers no counseling.  Nothing.  His kid is sixteen!  He’s not an adult and therefore incapable of making adult decisions.  Nick does not tell his mother at all, nor does his father.  She can tell something is up, but doesn’t push it.  He decides to wait until after the abortion and when he does, it’s literally a three minute conversation that goes something like, “What?  Your ex-girlfriend had an abortion today?  Oh, wow. That’s tough . . . so what  would you like for dinner?”
7. No consequences for their actions.  You would think that getting your teen girlfriend pregnant at the age of sixteen would get you in trouble. Emotionally they were hurting, but no consequences from their family.
8. What is love exactly?  The characters did not feel like they were in love to me, either.  Besides the sex, I could see nothing holding them together.  What exactly did they find so appealing about each other?  I was never really sure.

I think that there is huge teen appeal in this book and that teen readers will really like it.  But everything in that list above bothered me so much that it sometimes pained me to turn the pages to see what exactly was going to happen next.  But I did want to turn the pages.  I really wanted to know how Nick and Sasha were going to handle their situation and then got mad because things didn’t go my way.

Hmm . . . so, I’m ambiguous on I Know It’s Over.  Will teens like it?  Absolutely yes.  Did I like it?  Not as much as the teens will.  Dang it, I’m getting old and cranky.

Links of interest:  C.K Kelly Martin website.  More blogger book reviews.
Genre:  Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers September 23, 2008
Hardcover, 256 pages. ISBN: 978-0375845666
I Know It’s Over is available from your local independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.
I Know It’s Over is competing in the Nerds Heart YA book tournament and is paired up against Feathered by Laura Kasischke in which I’m the judge.  I’ll be posting my decision today.

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