Ditched

When I first started looking though a list of 2012 debut YA novels, Ditched: A Love Story by Robin Mellon automatically caught my attention. Justina was not the "prom type", but when her best friend for whom she recently realized her feelings were shifting asked her to prom, she accepted. She excitedly geared up for the big night, but it ended up being very far from what she expected. For starters, as we find out at the start of the novel (and from the title), Ian ditched her at the prom.

As readers, we learn about the various events of the night (one disaster after another before and after she was ditched) as Justina recounts them to a couple of women at a 7-11 where she showed up the morning after prom.

I did not end up liking Ditched as much as I had anticipated I would. The book had a fun lay-out with designs pointing to different stains on her dress that each told a piece of the story at the start of each chapter. In addition, Justina would spill pieces of the story before backing up, saying she was getting ahead of herself, so I was constantly wanting to keep reading in order to figure out how what she mentioned could have possibly happened since they were so outrageous. Nonetheless, at times it seemed like it was just dragging on. I did however enjoy getting to know the various characters who emerged throughout the novel based on Justina's descriptions.

Though Ditched did not end up being all that I had hoped it would, it had some creative aspects that I appreciated. I enjoyed considering the author's craft and thinking about the decisions about how to tell the story in a unique way.

*Net Galley electronic version; 2012 Debut Author Challenge 1/12