Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch Hummer

Title: Girl Unmoored
Author: Jennifer Gooch Hummer
Publisher: Fiction Std
Acquired: Received free for an honest review
Age Group: Middle Grade/Young Adult
Grade: 86% or B
Buy It: Amazon

Apron Bramhall has come unmoored. It's 1985 and her mom has passed away, her evil stepmother is pregnant, and her best friend has traded her in for a newer model. Fortunately, she's about to be saved by Jesus. Not that Jesus—the actor who plays him in Jesus Christ, Superstar. Apron is desperate to avoid the look-alike Mike (no one should look that much like Jesus unless they can perform a miracle or two), but suddenly he's everywhere. Until one day, she's stuck in church with him—of all places. And then something happens; Apron's broken teenage heart blinks on for the first time since she's been adrift.

Mike and his grumpy boyfriend, Chad, offer her a summer job in their flower store, Apron's world seems to calm. But when she uncovers Chad's secret, coming of age becomes almost too much bear. She's forced to see things the adults around her fail to—like what love really means and who is paying too much for it.

My Thoughts::
I scrolled by this book a few times on netgalley before I decided to finally requested it. The plot seemed pretty simple, and I've been focussing a lot more on complex and complicated ones. But I like experiencing books that take place during different time periods, just to see what life was like back then.

At first it felt like a lighthearted read. Apron's voice was hilarious in an innocent sort of way. She said exactly what was on her mind and let all of her thoughts be known. But as the book went on, some pretty serious stuff started showing up. This interested me even more, because it wasn't just a frivolous fun read, it was a story of loss and a young teen coming into her own. I never once disliked her character or what she stood for. She was a bit immature and unreasonable at times, but I would have been too in her situation.

I can't recall reading many other books that talked about AIDS as one of the main forefronts of the story. The book even went further and talked about gays in that time period, who weren't even close to as accepted as they are now. Seeing both of these through someone's eyes that is a good amount younger than I, and living at quite a different time period was very interesting and eye opening. I never thought about children coming to terms and moving past prejudices with these things when the majority of the public was showed a lot of negativity.

Overall I think that Girl Unmoored opened my eyes to some things that I wasn't even aware of. With it's range of characters and unexperienced narrator, its a book that I'd recommend.