Hard Love
Since his parents' divorce, John's mother hasn't touched him, her new fiancé wants them to move away, and his father would rather be anywhere than at Friday night dinner with his son. It's no wonder John writes articles like "Interview with the Stepfather" and "Memoirs from Hell." The only release he finds is in homemade zines like the amazing Escape Velocity by Marisol, a self-proclaimed "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee Lesbian." Haning around the Boston Tower Records for the new issue of Escape Velocity, John meets Marisol and a hard love is born.
While at first their friendship is based on zines, dysfuntional families, and dreams of escape, soon both John and Marisol begin to shed their protective shells. Unfortunately, John mistakes this growing intimacy for love, and a disastrous date to his junior prom leaves that friendship in ruins. Desperately hoping to fix things, John convinces Marisol to come with him to a zine conference on Cape Cod. On the sandy beaches by the Bluefish Wharf Inn, John realizes just how hard love can be.
With keen insight into teenage life, Ellen Wittlinger delivers a story of adolescence that is fierce and funny -- and ultimately transforming -- even as it explores the pain of growing up.
While at first their friendship is based on zines, dysfuntional families, and dreams of escape, soon both John and Marisol begin to shed their protective shells. Unfortunately, John mistakes this growing intimacy for love, and a disastrous date to his junior prom leaves that friendship in ruins. Desperately hoping to fix things, John convinces Marisol to come with him to a zine conference on Cape Cod. On the sandy beaches by the Bluefish Wharf Inn, John realizes just how hard love can be.
With keen insight into teenage life, Ellen Wittlinger delivers a story of adolescence that is fierce and funny -- and ultimately transforming -- even as it explores the pain of growing up.
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Community Reviews
I read this a long time ago. Probably about eleven years ago. And yet it still sticks with me and remains one of the nearest and dearest books to my heart. I always felt like a bit of an outcast in high school - somewhere in that middle ground/group of feeling a little invisible at times. I had a notebook full of drawings (which I stink at) and musings and photos and little journal entries. I remember a "popular girl" who used to sneer at me across the table like I was a freak of nature while I wrote and pasted in this notebook. Sidenote: A few years after high school, my boyfriend and I were heading back home, on a country road, and had seen someone driving like a bat out of hell for the 5 miles from the city to this road. We were about a mile behind the car, and while taking this country road, we found that the car had flipped into a ditch. We pulled over, and the girl that was driving said flipped car came tearing across the road for help. YEP. It was that same girl who sneered at me in high school. She had a few scrapes and was mostly just shaken up, but it felt good to be in the position where she needed our help.
ANYHOW! I recall really relating to Gio (John) and really admiring Marisol. I wanted to be as creative and free spirited. And although there was some (one sided mostly as you are told right up front that Marisol is a lesbian) romance in this book, it did not revolve around an unrealistic romance. It was more about love than it was romance, and by that I mean that it wasn't necessarily revolving around a romantic love. I guess "Hard Love" truly would be the most accurate way to describe it (really nailed that title, Wittlinger!). I really wanted to make a zine and for a while after reading this book, really got into scrounging around to find some that others created (and still have some around the house, to be honest...). This book just really had an impact on me.
Also, the song printed at the end - Hard Love by Bob Franke. I love this song. I love the words and the way he sings it. The touch of including this just really made the story all that much more special to me.
ANYHOW! I recall really relating to Gio (John) and really admiring Marisol. I wanted to be as creative and free spirited. And although there was some (one sided mostly as you are told right up front that Marisol is a lesbian) romance in this book, it did not revolve around an unrealistic romance. It was more about love than it was romance, and by that I mean that it wasn't necessarily revolving around a romantic love. I guess "Hard Love" truly would be the most accurate way to describe it (really nailed that title, Wittlinger!). I really wanted to make a zine and for a while after reading this book, really got into scrounging around to find some that others created (and still have some around the house, to be honest...). This book just really had an impact on me.
Also, the song printed at the end - Hard Love by Bob Franke. I love this song. I love the words and the way he sings it. The touch of including this just really made the story all that much more special to me.
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