Forever...

(From bn.com) Awkward, sweet, passionate, innocent, secretive . . . Do you remember your first time? Katherine and Michael won't ever forget theirs. They were seniors in high school. Totally crazy for each other, they thought they had found the one. It was first love, and it was perfect: long talks on the phone, ski trips, and double dates when they simply couldn't wait to be alone. But was Katherine and Michael's relationship the love of a lifetime, or merely the beginning of a lifetime of love?

This book begged me to read it. I first read about it in Everything I Needed to Know About Being A Girl I Learned From Judy Blume, and then my trig buddy Natalie read it...and reread it. I borrowed it from her.

This book has been around since my mother was my age. That is embarrassing to think about. This book is just so open, honest, and frank about sex. It's uncomfortable for a squeamish person like me to read. I totally understand why it caused so much controversy when it was published. Even now, if I had a daughter, I wouldn't want her to read it.

Forever...makes a sad attempt to portray the emotional side of sex. Katherine does mention it several times, but a majority of the novel is focused on the physical. The only thing that Michael and Katherine's relationship focuses around is the physical. They have one, maybe two heart to heart moments in the whole book. The rest is just body to body.

If what Michael and Katherine experienced was love, no thank you!

Aside from my personal opinion, it is still a good book. Judy Blume is one of the forefathers (foremother?) of the YA genre. I admire how she wasn't afraid to write about anything, and I know many girls have benefitted from her fearlessness. Judy Blume says things that teenagers wouldn't listen to if they heard it from their parents.

Grade: B