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Among the young-adult friendship books that have come out in the last month, one of the nicest ones is Pieces of Me Everywhere, by Regina Felty. The main character, Alli, is challenged by her long-term best friend, Tessa, who is steadily becoming harder to deal with, first ditching Alli to hang out with other friends, then starting risky behavior that gets steadily more dangerous as the book goes on.
I think most of us have had to deal with a long-term friend who goes down the wrong path and/or turns into such a brat that you just don’t want to see him or her anymore. And I think most of us know when friends do that, we need to find out why the person is hurting, and try to be helpful with that hurt. But how much nonsense are we going to tolerate from friends before we give them the boot? That’s the main question for Alli to deal with as Tessa spirals out of control.
Alli is a good girl who goes to church regularly and has a good relationship with her parents. In this book, being a good girl is a major part of Alli’s problem – she’s like the prideful older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Tessa is not a churchgoer, and this hadn’t been a problem in their friendship before, but this year it seems like every tiny little difference seems to be coming to a head.
Early in the book, Alli confronts Tessa about her negative behaviors, but doesn’t get much response:
“Tessa acts chill, looking at me like I’m a toddler throwing a tantrum in the grocery store. Like snubbing me in science was no big deal. That only makes me madder.”
And Tessa keeps on doing things that would irritate any of us, and Alli keeps reacting like that. Being a Christian in a public high school makes Alli stick out a bit, and she wishes she could fit in better. It doesn’t help when a group of cheerleaders conspire to humiliate Alli, and it seems that Tessa’s complicit in it. Righteous indignation keeps building in Alli, and Tessa’s life just keeps getting worse, and this book becomes an impressive horse race between “I’ve had enough” and “she needs me.” The narration is lively and active, and it kept me going from chapter to chapter. I read the whole book at one time, and I ended up staying up pretty late finishing it.
I had a few minor quibbles with the book: One, there’s a part where character A knows about something that’s going to happen to character B in the near future and character C needs to be there to help, and it just didn’t seem plausible that all that could come together that way. A+B ≠ C in this case. But it did get character C to a powerful point in the plot.
My other problem is that Tessa’s ordeals are by far more interesting than Alli’s, but Alli is the main character here. There’s a great deal you’ll be wondering about what happens to Tessa, and you won’t get a full answer. The purpose is for Alli’s character to develop to the point where she understands the sacrifices involved in true Christian friendship. A little more focus to get us ready for the emotions of figuring that out could have helped.
A couple more positive things to add: This is a Christian book that looks real life in the face and is willing to deal with its grittiness. There aren’t any unrealistic expectations put forward about what a nice sermon or Bible verse quote can do. No characters go “poof! I’m a believer now!” The icky “I don’t quite belong here” feeling that can drag down anyone’s faith (and is the cause of many high-schoolers and college students leaving church) is also in full force in this book.
It’s a great book for study groups and for anyone wanting to develop answers to those “where the rubber hits the road” questions of living out faith.” Here’s a link to Regina’s author Web site.
If you read the book, I’d be interested to hear what you think of it.
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