Maureen Johnson first came to my attention when she tweeted and blogged about another writer here. Then I noticed she'd put 13 Little Blue Envelopes up on Amazon as a freebie. It's not free any more, but I still recommend you buy it and read it - it's fun.
The Plot
This is a great idea. Virginia (or Ginny or Gin), a kinda shy, kinda naive teenager from New York experiences the rite of passage of a lifetime when she abandons all rational thought and obeys (or tries to) instructions set her in a series of envelopes by her slightly bonkers artist aunt. Her slightly bonkers and dead aunt. She meanders all over Europe on a shoestring, meeting a variety of friends and acquaintances of her aunt, most of whom seem every bit as nuts as her aunt herself was. It's a fairly safe story where nothing really bad happens other than near the end where she loses a bunch of non-essential luggage. She meets boys, both safe and charming as well as not-so-safe and sleazy. And there's the big happy ending that is clearly a hook for the following books.
The Characters
Virginia is wide-eyed and innocent with enough of the obligatory teen sarcasm but not enough of the self-doubt and angst that goes with it. She was fun to read but at times I wanted to reach in through my Kindle app and smack her.
Peg, the dead aunt, comes across in her letters as very sane - far more so than the way she both describes herself and is by others. Ultimately, it's dear dead Peg who is responsible for turning a sweet, naive teen girl into sweet, but much more worldly (and better for it) young woman.
Kieth the love interest, is a bonkers Brit (cue eye-rolling) artiste. He's also a gentleman, spontanious, romantic and has that lovely bad-boy image. Well, he's supposed to have that bad-boy image, only he's just a bit too safe. Must have something to do with all that gentlemanly behaviour (despite his penchant for punk t-shirts and kilts).
Richard is the go-to guy Virginia leans on when things get rough. He was dear dead Peg's last main dude and it's at his place where Virgina has a sort of base while she's traipsing all over the continent. He's harmless and a bit distant, in a fatherly way but somehow, just a bit off. The ending, and no I'm not giving it away, were it to happen in real life, would almost certainly not have gone the way it did in the book. Richard would have behaved very, very differently, I'm quite sure.
The Style
Possibly why I enjoyed reading 13 Little Blue Envelopes so much. Her dialogue is quick and dry and Virginia is delightfully slightly self-effacing. The book flows nicely and the titled chapters work very well. Johnson's work is easy to read and just as easy to get hooked on. Nice.
Conclusion
Anyhow, 13 Little Blue Envelopes is great YA/Teen lit for the angsty teen girl in all of us - well those who want a little bit of romance & safe adventure without it all going Sweet Valley High-ish. I've mentioned before that I don't like the term 'Chick-lit'. 13 could probably be pigeonholed as such by some, but I'm a 40 y/o, straight father of two and I enjoyed it, what does that tell you? You can find it here.
I give it 7/10 (I'd normally have put in a bit here about the setting, but as I mentioned, the book takes place all over Europe, so... duh...) I'll get around to reading more of Maureen Johnson's work soon enough I guess. Those two kids I'm father of? They're girls.
PS: There's another reason I enjoyed 13 Little Blue Envelopes so much. Johnson's an accomplished author, with an agent and traditional publishers behind her, and all the resources that go with them. Even then, there are a few little typos that made made it through. One is a though/thought slip. I'm not pointing this out because I'm a pedantic asshole. It's because right now, I'm putting my own work out there and have been stressing big time about little mistakes like that in it. I found great comfort in the knowledge that if Johnson and HarperCollins can cope, so can I.
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