Trouble: A memoir

Product Information

There was a lot of girl hate in here. Under the circumstances it makes sense. I mean, what pregnant teen doesn't get any grief from her peers? Having none would be unrealistic. This particular trope is one I'm tired of but it was not completely out of place. SO. MUCH. FRIENDSHIP. This might have been one of the biggest ideas, and I loved it! It showed how much a true best friend can mean to us, and this was the aspect that really helped me. The platonic relationship between Hannah and Aaron made me realise so much about my own life, which was one fo the reasons I found this book so touching. It hit really close to home, and although this won't make it everyone's favourite book, I think it was really moving, and important for everyone.

However, with out spoiling it, I didn't like who the father turned out to be or how it was dealt with. Technically, Hannah falling pregnant at fifteen would be statutory rape, combine this with the father, would this realistically be ignored by the parents and not perused any further? There was, to my recollection, no mention of how the parents dealt with who the father was. For me, it took a book that could have been very realistic and made it less so. Well, after the whole school finds out about Hannah's pregnantcy and starts guessing who the father is. Aaron goes to her home to talk to her and ends up being the fake father. It's believeble to them because the were alone once and every guessed they had sex but they really didn't. One scene that totally didn't ring true and really bugged me was the courtroom "interrogation" of the witnesses: Why would Chay's lawyer laying out all the information that can convince anyone that Chay had every right to take revenge on Franklin, after being harassed for such a long time? All those questions serve as an exposition for the readers but it was done in a way that is not convincing at all. Pratt has created amazingly layered and captivating characters in the form of Hannah and Aaron and we get their stories in alternating chapters. Both of them are struggling with what is going on in their lives… Hannah in a very apparent way, and Aaron in a way that is a bit less apparent but none-the-less hard for him. Aaron – new boy at school – tries to fit in with the new crowd of friends but finds it difficult because of the difficulties he’s trying to overcome. It’s clear something terrible has happened to him but he blames no-one but himself. So when he discovers that Hannah is pregnant, he offers to pretend to be the father.In the dark, in the light, always imagining her face, remembering her face in the moments before the accident. Her laugh. Her easy wave. How her wave had been the first thing about her that told him all he needed to know. Like all of Schmidt's books, Trouble is well-written, with lovely descriptions and excellent character voice. I'm not sure if it's just because I was purposefully looking for the descriptive passages, but Trouble's seem to be the best I've read in his books. Everything is so active and vibrant. I was definitely taking notes. Also it would be criminal for me not to mention the swoon (in an unexpected and unpredictable way). The driver of the vehicle is Chay Chouan. Chay and his parents are survivors of the Cambodian massacres that took place under the Khmer Rouge; Chay has experienced his sister being shot in front of him and his brother being taken by force. Having barely survived, and having made their way out of Cambodia to the United States, Chay's family has settled into Merton, a formerly-abandoned mill town that has been revitalized by an influx of Cambodian refugees. Chay's parents, who have founded a family masonry and stonework business, want the best for Chay. And so it is -- we learn during the pretrial hearing -- that Chay's parents had gotten him enrolled at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Preparatory High School in Blythbury-by-the-Sea, where Chay has been repeatedly beat up and had his property destroyed by a group of students led by golden boy Franklin Smith. But despite all those positive points, as the book went on I genuinely started to find it weak and distasteful.

And -- if we hadn't previously gotten the drift -- it becomes abundantly clear that Chay and Louisa (Henry and Franklin's sister) have been spending time together and are in love. One might well conclude that knowledge of this relationship has contributed to Franklin's neanderthal behavior. It is during the pretrial hearing, when all of this is revealed, that Dr. Sheringham's testimony also makes it crystal clear that the administration has fully sanctioned the abuse meted out upon Chay by Franklin and his cronies.I loved parts of the book so much -- many poetic passages and a very strong central group of cast. And yet, I had quite a bit of "Trouble" with so much of it as well: the superficial racial tension between the townspeople and the students (not the realized tension between Franklin, Chay, his father, etc) is dissatisfyingly portrayed. The significance of the Seaflower (the slave ship) is elusive and never quite gets "treated"; I wasn't sure whether I liked or disliked all the coincidences -- Henry just happened to rescue Chay's old dog and just happened to get into a "museum" where he learned about the history of his own family and the Seaflower. I’m not one of those pearl-clutching adult readers of YA. I love to see real life situations portrayed in books for teens and I don’t care about thinking of the children or whatever. I expect young people to act like young people and that includes make less than perfect choices and mistakes and everything else. Nor do I think books have to teach lessons or guide kids in any particular direction. I have been waiting to read trouble for a long time and I am delighted to say it didn't disappoint. Trouble is the story of Hannah and Aaron. Hannah is 15 and pregnant and Aaron is the new boy at school who pretends to be the father of her child. It was the perfect read for me for several reasons. Most of the families give SO MUCH SHIT about their offspring. This is possibly just my own bias, because I end up reading a lot of isolated child/teen characters, but these families are in love with their kids. They will move their own lives, they will make bad calls and then apologise for them, they will decide where their loyalties lie and follow through on it. Bad parents are allowed to be dropped, they don't have to remain as an influencing figure - these kids have agency to choose their story, and their parents have agency and mostly choose to do positive things.