Crush

By Carrie Mac

Because of a moment of indiscretion, Hope's parents send her to New York to spend the summer with her hipster sister while they travel to Thailand. Miserable, Hope ends up meeting Nat, and developing a powerful crush. The only problem is that Nat is a girl. Hope is pretty sure she isn't gay. Or is she? Struggling with new feelings, fitting in and a strange city far from home, Hope finds that love -- and acceptance -- comes in many different forms.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Mar 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9781551435282

Carrie Mac

Carrie Mac's first novel The Beckoners won the Arthur Ellis YA Award, is a CLA Honour book. She is available for school and library presentations, and has been known to hold the interest of a couple hundred teens where others have failed. Maybe it's the tattoos. For more information, visit www.carriemac.com.

Reviews for Crush

[spuriouscarrie · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A short, simple, everything-is-a-little-too-perfect-and-thus-a-little-eye-roll-inducing coming out/romance tale. The biggest problem is that somehow this book went through a writing/editing/copy-editing/proofreading/publishing process and no one caught the math that doesn't add up. The main character is 17. She has an older sister who has 10 years on her: 17 + 10 = 27. The parents are celebrating 30 years together. The parents met at age 17 and had their first child (the older sister) while still 17. So, the older sister should have been 30. Or 29. Not 27. Everything after that was all very sweet, very perfect, not really 100% believable, but probably a really important story for a gay or questioning teenager in his or her early teens to read. The super duper positivity was cloying, but a nice change from some of the shitty things families say and do to kids who come out as gay.

[wunder-62679 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a "high low" book, a high interest book that is easy to read. It is novella length, so a pretty fast read.

For me, this was pretty short. I borrowed it on a recommendation from the Paly library blog, but it only lasted 45 minutes of my hour and a quarter urgent care wait. Then we were in the exam room for another hour. Dang.

Hope goes to Brooklyn, meets a girl and kisses her. She has fallen into a job as a nanny for well-off lesbians with twins and her parents are quirky but open-minded hippies, so the major drama is her own shock at wanting to kiss a girl. It pretty much stops after a kiss and a trip to Coney Island, and her parents approving of her girlfriend, even though she's headed back to the west coast at the end of the summer. I would like to know if Nat is taller than Hope (which matters when you kiss).

I guess I'm happy that teen lesbian romance books exist at all reading levels. I think I'm happier that there is still a reason to for kids to read Annie on my Mind.

[sumariotter · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have been surveying YA lesbian literature lately and would like to rate this highly as a young adult lesbian novel but I didn't think it had much substance. It was not very believable (girl just happens to meet future employer who offers her place to stay and happens to be lesbian, then the first girl she meets turns out to be a lesbian and likes her) at all. I liked that she grew up in a commune and describes it positively but it was just too fluffy of a story for me to relate to.

[tildagustafsson_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Crush is a pretty good book but it doesn't really keep your attention through out the book, it gets boring after a while but it is interesting.If you're into not so much drama, and like to read about a person's life then this is right for you.I didn't like it that much because I like more drama and a lot of stuff going on.

[francescadefreitas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was lovely, from the initial scene at the airport to the conclusion - for such a short piece, I was surprised how well Hope's character was developed. I think this would be an excellent coming-out novel to give to a reluctant teen reader, if they fancy girls or boys - it reads well as a romance, it isn't an after-schooly issue story. Maybe not one for boys, I think, though.While there is some mention of sex and drug use, nothing is graphic.