Someone once said to me ‘Don’t you just hate it when you start reading a book and then realise you’ve read it before.’ I looked at her blankly – surely that would never really happen; surely you could never read that many books! But it happened to me last night. This is what I remember about Face to Face by Sandra Glover.
I never thought I’d pick up a book only to discover I’d read it before and had forgotten. Well, my memory is crap and I’m reading more than I used to, so I suppose it was bound to happen. I was in the library, saw a book by Sandra Glover and knowing that I like her books, I picked it up. ‘This seems familiar’ I thought when I started reading it last night. And yes, I have read it before, so this is a remembered review really as I didn’t read it again.
This is a story of Adelle who begins a new school but doesn’t feel comfortable making new friends. The first page begins with her worrying about her fat thighs, and at first I was worried that this was going to be another ‘Teenagers – you mustn’t diet too much because it is bad for you’ type book; but it wasn’t at all. There is so much more to her character than worrying about being fat, to the point where it is literally haunting. And I completely didn’t guess what the twist in the story was going to be. I think it’s revealed about half way through and I was totally surprised.
I’d definitely recommend this book for young adults.