It, Doing

I was lead to Doing It by Melvin Burgess via the blog Bookshelves of Doom. I just found this blog recently, but I've been reading her archives and they are really interesting. Who doesn't want lots and lots of book recommendations? And she doesn't shy away from teen books, which I often enjoy reading.

And this is one such. She compared it to Forever by Judy Blume and I really loved that novel when I was in high school. And when I was rereading it, I found that it really rang true for me. It's not that often that sex in teen books is allowed to both be awkward and not have bad consequences.

It's told mostly from a male viewpoint and it's set more recently (not the '70s like Forever). It's a lot more rude than I was expecting (that's rude in the British sense; it's set in England). But it isn't just trying to be shocking; it makes some very good points about teenagers. I mean, really. Let's not forget that, in the past, people were often married by the age of 14...