Monique is a preacher's daughter who detests the impossible rules of her religion. Everyone expects her to wait until marriage, so she has no one to turn to when she discovers that she physically can't have sex.
After two years of trying and failing, her boyfriend breaks up with her. To win him back, Monique teams up with straight-laced church girl Sasha--who is surprisingly knowledgeable about Monique's condition--as well as Reggie, the misunderstood bad boy who always makes a ruckus at church, and together they embark upon a top-secret search for the cure.
While on their quest, Monique discovers the value of a true friend and the wonders of a love that accepts her for who she is. Despite everyone's opinions about her virtue, she learns to live for herself.
My Review of Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl by Joya Goffney.
I read Excuse me while I ugly cry by the same author sometime ago, and I was incredibly blown.
I already know Goffney was badass at YA books, and so I had no doubt I my mind that I was in for a great and awesome ride, when I picked up this book to read.
This is a book I wish I read when I was a teenager, and a book I would recommend to every teenager still confused about sex and trying to figure out who they are and what they really want.
Monique is a church girl. A good girl. The pastor's daughter, and so she is saddled with so much pressure from within her and without.
There's the pressure mounted on her by her parents to be a perfect Christian girl, who worships God in spirit and in truth, and who is free from all sexual stains. But what she wants more than anything is to not be a church girl, is to be an ordinary girl.
She's dating Dom, her best friend and the son of her father's best friend, whom her parents think is the best fit for her, because he's a good Christian boy who won't conform to premarital sex.
But little do they know the two, innocent, seventeen year Olds, are not so innocent like everybody believes they are.
They have been trying and failing to have sex for two years. A character I truly love is Sasha, the church girl whom everybody believes is in the goody-two-shoes camp.
Dom and Monique make fun of Sasha and her church girl lifestyle, thinking they know her. But is Sasha, the church-girl-prayer-warrior Sasha the real Sasha?
Then there's my darling character, Reggie, the clown, and the most misunderstood. Everyone thinks he's up to no good, just because he's a little different from others. And he knows better than explaining himself, because what would that amount to?
So he lets them think whatever they feel like, while he lives his life the best way he knows to. 'Don't judge a book by its cover' is really a valid saying, because you never can know who someone is, if you've not come close to them.
Monique will later find out that Sasha isn't forcing her love for the church or God. She truly loves God, but that doesn't mean she is void of a social life.
Just like every teenager must have experienced, most times, our parents try to shove down who they want us to be, or who they wanted to be but ended up not being, down our throats, without asking for our opinions.
It's just like our lives are already planned out, and we'll be perceived as rebellious, if we ask for a moment to catch our breaths.
It's always 'don't have sex, preserve your virginity for your husband,' and never 'do you want to talk about the changes in your body?'
Adolescence is the most tedious and scary stage of living. You know your body is changing, but you don't know why, and you can't even ask questions on how to navigate through it, else you'll be accused of being a spoiled child.
Here is our heroine in the book, Monique, who is experiencing vaginismus, but doesn't even know she has a disorder. And she cannot ask her parents any sex related question, because that is a taboo.
She has to rely on her friends Sasha and Reggie for help. It's ironic that Sasha, whom she really hates, becomes her savior and confidante at the end.
Also I loved Reggie's character so much. He's the clownish genius, the unserious guy whom everyone thinks is helpless and hopeless, but who would save the day.
A vital moral lesson from the book is the importance of sex education. Teenagers should be thought about sex, what it is, what it entails and how to go about it. They should be able to pronounce the sexual organs freely, without being awkward about it.
The onus is on parents and teachers to give their students and children the best sex education they can give, so they wouldn't have to seek the knowledge elsewhere. And also, no one is perfect.
And you can't conclude about someone, if you've really not taken the time to figure them out, to know the real them beyond sheer hearsays.
I enjoyed reading this book. It's a classy romcom, the type that I love reading. I love the author's choice of words, and how she strings words together beautifully. It's a 4.96 book for me. And I strongly recommend to every lover of Young Adult literature.
Have you read the book? What do you think about it? Please share your thoughts with me in the comment section.
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