What do You think about Hard Love (2001)?
Hard LovettttttttttttEllen WittlingerttttttttttWalking passed that person- that girl or guy you just can’t stop thinking of-gives you a bag of butterflies fluttering around in your stomach. You find your mind wondering off. How wonderful life wou- then you come back to earth realizing that no matter what he/she will never love you back. This is the slice of a bigger heart in the book Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger.tIn the book Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger, a boy named John “Giovanni” meets a girl named Marisol simply for helping him writing zine books. From business purposes the two teens later then develop feelings which for John become strong and intense but for Marisol become confusing and urging her to what she really wants in life and who she really is…trying to find her true identity.tThese mutually and most natural feelings and the tensions are what drive the conflict in the story making it both interesting and before you know it, it brings you into the life of the book making you the teenager in school just watching all of this happening. Hard Love is a book that you won’t be able to put down until it’s done. Drama, love, pain, are definitely crystal clear leaving your eyes wanting more to read without any stop signs. Pick up Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger, off that shelf, read it and you WON’T regret it!!-Samantha Lai903Dtt
—Samantha
Abandoned by a father who decided the married life wasn’t for him and a depressed mother who has refused to touch him at the age of 10, John’s family situation has caused him to become immune to his own and others emotions. Guarding himself from physical and mental feelings, John, walks around with a presumptuous attitude pretending not to care about anything that happens to him in life. He acts as if he isn’t concerned about spending every weekend in his dad’s empty home and the fact that his mother is about to marry a bald guy. The only emotions he allows in are the ones he receives from reading and writing zines, which is a homemade magazine that allows writers and artist to freely express themselves. It is through reading the zines that John finds Marisol, writer of Escape Velocity, two souls wandering the earth refusing to trust anyone for fear of being hurt again. However, the one time John does decides to let his guard down and share himself with someone it might have been with the wrong person.This Printz Award book, Hard Love, uses the characters of John and Marisol in order to tell a story of love, identity, and truth. The two characters begin their journey with multiple coffee dates, discussions about the different writing styles of one another, Marisol’s identity crisis of being an adopted lesbian, and their dire need for escape. Through each other the two begin to finally trust again. Marisol teaches John to always uphold the truth and John shows her that she is capable of being loved. Ellen Wittlinger tells an incredible and relatable story of two teens either trying to escape themselves or their harsh environments and along the journey they discover a deep connection solving “the initial mystery.”Reviewed by Te’Aria Martin
—Te'Aria Martin
so - more damaged kids attracting each other like magnets, filling in the places left by distant, absent, or overinvolved adults. a strange choice for LGBTQPR3Z week. sure, it is about a friendless boy whose home life is emotionally barren and a firecracker of a lesbian, but it isn't really about sexuality - that part is used more as window dressing than spotlit, and only serves as an obstacle to keep the characters from kissing. she's cool, he's not, and yet they form a relationship based on zines and teen angst until john/gio douches out and the ending happens.i don't really understand what marisol gets out of the relationship - why she keeps coming back. he is clearly not as smart, talented, or interesting as she is, which is why he is forced to lie so frequently. what does some independent lesbian want out of a relationship with an emotionally underdeveloped boy, especially once it becomes clear he has a crush on her and asks her to the prom for goodness' sake?? teen girls do not typically have this kind of patience with starry-eyed stalker losers, especially if even a drunken pity-hookup is so far out of the question. it is such a glaringly one-sided relationship. the only compelling thing about him is his passivity in allowing his parents to treat him so shittily and his lack of interest in being present in his own life. perhaps he is fascinating to marisol the way an overturned beetle is fascinating to a young child: the struggle and the persistence of nature etc. etc.dunno - the real question is "will i ever get caught up on all my silly little book reviews, or will there forever be these sad blank spots effing up my bookpages...?" i am totally in class right now, by the way.NAUGHTY!!
—karen
