Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #890485 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-It's the summer between their junior and senior years of high school for Aurin and her friends Kenney and Fred. Fred has known he's gay for as long as he can remember, but Aurin discovers her attraction to Neila, a new girl in town, as the novel progresses. The plot centers on her awakening to her sexual identity and the difficulty she has in maintaining her old friendships while pursuing the new intimacy. Unfortunately, Benduhn's characters lack enough depth or dimension to engage readers. The teens' activities revolve around hanging out in a park in their hometown of Greensboro, NC, and attending a ballroom-dancing class. The most intense moments in the book come when Aurin describes her physical reactions to the sight, sound, and feel of Neila and they involve so much scampering of squirrels in her stomach and fizzling sensations in her limbs that they seem more like a gastric attack than love. The characters do manage to suppress their possessiveness and jealousies and reach a new configuration of their relationships, but the author neglects to reveal other facets of their experiences. Or maybe these are just shallow kids. Even so, one would imagine that coming to grips with one's lesbianism-or one's lifelong best girlfriend's lesbianism-might involve more introspection than is displayed here. A vague and disappointing novel.
Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Reviewed with Julie Anne Peters' Keeping You a Secret.

Gr. 9-12. In these novels about first love, a high-school girl falls hard for another girl and faces the complicated pain of coming out to family, friends, and to one's self. In Gravel Queen, the author's debut novel, Aurin explores her first gay relationship, and finds that her best friend, a glamorous, possessive drama queen, is jealous. Benduhn focus on Aurin's self-discovery and friendships, closing the novel before Aurin tells her family what's going on. In Keeping You a Secret, model high-school senior Holland, who has a boyfriend, develops an overwhelming crush on Cece. The girls fall passionately in love and a tragic coming-out story ensues. Holland finds herself homeless and alone, except for Cece and a new gay support system.

Both novels, written in first-person, are filled with believable inner monologues and finely tuned contemporary dialogue. Benduhn includes some interesting cinematic references related to Aurin's filmmaking aspirations, but some of her descriptions are over-the-top. Peters' story and characters are more developed. Both books are romantic and layered, and many teens, particularly those with fluid sexual identities, will recognize the questions: Do you have to kiss someone to be gay? What do fantasies mean? Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Cute, frothy entertainment.
This is basically an after-school special in novel form. Well, make that novella form. It's only 150 pages.

The three main characters spend all their time hanging around at the local park, wandering aimlessly through their town, sighing dramatically about how incredibly bored they are. True to life? Sure. Interesting? No.

The protagonist is a bored, sort of passive-agressive girl named Aurin who has a crush on a girl named Neila. (The author apparently has a fondness for weird names.) Her moody, attention-grabbing friend Kenney is jealous of the time she spends with Neila. It's never really explained why. Aurin resents Kenney, but that is never really gone into in depth. NOTHING in this book is gone into in any depth. It's a quick, superficial skim into the pool of teenager-hood.

Excellent Book
This is a very tender caring book which was certainly written by a caring loving Person. It becomes a page turner. It teaches us to care for one another, forgive and share. Refreshing and confident. Wonderfully written. We need more writers like Tea.

A touching romance, a good story
Aurin and her two friends have a nice comfortable friendship in their teen world, in Greensboro, North Carolina. When new girl Neila arrives, her liveliness and fun, are an instant attraction to Aurin. How Aurin manages to bring Neila into her life, and still keep her friendships, keeps you reading. This is a sweet, touching romance, realistic, with nice touches of humour. Author Benduhn insists this story could have happened for real, and most of it seems credible. The ending is definitely satisfying. A delightful, thoughtful novel.