Crush

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

An acceptable hi-lo novel, Crush lacks the emotional impact of Charmed
(2004), Mac’s first contribution to Orca Soundings books for reluctant
readers.

While Hope’s hippie, commune-dwelling parents go to Thailand to build
a school as their way of celebrating 30 years of living common-law, the
17-year-old is shipped off to spend the remainder of the summer in
Brooklyn with the family’s black sheep, her 27-year-old sister, Joy.
Though Hope had lost her virginity at age 15 and has since had two other
secret sexual partners, it was her parents’ recent discovery of her
sexual relationship with a 24-year-old summer crop harvester that led to
her Brooklyn exile.

Chance happenings play a role in most novels’ plots, but too much of
Crush’s story depends on such coincidences. The book’s bottom line
is that, despite Hope’s four previous male sex partners, she discovers
that she has a crush on Nat, the 19-year-old female owner of a Brooklyn
bike shop. To get to that point, however, Hope’s flight to New York
sees her encountering and helping Maira, a mother of twins. Later in the
book, Maira calls, asking Hope if she would like to become the
children’s live-in nanny. Not only is Maira in a long-term lesbian
relationship, but she also happens to know Nat. Hope’s first meeting
with Nat is also overly contrived and dependent on Hope having brought
her dog to Brooklyn with her. The book’s strongest portions involve
Hope’s questioning whether her attraction to Nat is a genuine
expression of her sexuality or just a passing phase. Recommended with
reservations.