These are books which make Judy Blume’s Are You There God It’s Me Margaret look very Enid Blyton.
More recently I have stumbled upon YA books which have taken this to a new level. To be fair, most of these scenes are of the fade to black kind, no doubt a nod to the concerns of parents and teachers, although the increasing prevalence of these has at times left me wondering if these scenes were really necessary. However, in more recent years, sex scenes have been appearing with much greater frequency. Teachers and parents, who tend to be the ones who choose and pay for the books, were traditionally wary of stories with this kind of content.
YA has always had a rather precarious relationship when it comes to sex. Trust me when I say that this book is about the least erotic thing I have read all year. I’ll admit, with this kind of premise we might easily be dealing with a piece of erotic fiction as opposed to the YA I usually review. Similarly her best friend (and fundamentalist Christian) Angela, and regular Wednesday fling Zach are also unaware of the goings on in her bedroom. Her extra-curricular activities are a secret to everyone (except the boys involved that are sworn to secrecy), including her mostly absent mother Kym, who, about as shallow as a toddler’s wading pool, has no idea. After all, she’s teaching them to be kinder, more compassionate and attentive to their girlfriends, thus ensuring that they will have the positive first sexual encounter that she herself was denied. It is, as she explains, her way of paying it forward, a kind of community service. She has sex with other girls’ boyfriends but only those who are virgins. (p.34)ġ7 year old Mercedes is a High School Senior with a secret.
Jillian was everything I wasn’t – pure, innocent, and unaware of how much pain the opposite sex could inflict, physically and emotionally. What I couldn’t tell him was that I wanted, for some desperate reason, for Jillian’s first time to be what mine never was. Book Review: “Firsts” by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, St Martin’s Press (2016)
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