JENNIFEROLOGY

An unruly teenager finds herself a home in her grandmother’s Florida retirement community in this YA novel.

“Hello, sandy-bug-and-snake-infested Sunshine State. What a freakin’ nightmare,” 15-year-old Jennifer Brice Hamilton says after arriving at her grandmother’s double-wide in a retirement community called Camelot in Flamingo Junction. Jennifer is forced to stay there for the time being as her mother, Heather Jo, leaves with her new boyfriend to have some quality time apart. (“In my mother’s words, I was a handful,” the teen explains.) Jennifer’s amiable, larger-than-life grandmother, Mama Rudeen, lays on a thick country welcome, introducing her to the older gals she runs around with; her kind neighbor Sir Stuckie; and local alligator Guinevere. At first, Jennifer engages in defiant acts: She dyes her grandmother’s little dog, Coconut, bright pink and turns the community’s welcome sign into a dirty pun. But Mama Rudeen’s delightful friends start to melt Jennifer’s bitter attitude, especially as they introduce her to a handsome local boy, Guthrie Murdock. When the teen starts school and strikes up a quick friendship with the perky Paisleigh Scott—a girl with her own family problems and whose kind nature is taken advantage of by popular cheerleaders and the boy she likes—Jennifer slowly starts to see herself staying in Camelot, even if she cannot stop complaining about it. Written as if it were Jennifer’s personal journal, the novel gives itself plenty of room to let the spirited teen express her frustration and angst. (Jennifer’s inner monologue delivers some pithy one-liners, such as referring to new classmates as “future standing-in-the-paycheck-cash-advance-line of losers”). The tale slowly reveals Jennifer’s better qualities, like the way she stands up for a friend or feels self-conscious around the dreamy Guthrie. Eadie’s plot takes some fairly predictable turns, but Jennifer’s sharp tongue and the endearingly sweet Mama Rudeen will keep YA readers entertained even as they see the inevitable heartwarming conclusion coming a mile away.

A standard teen rebellion tale but with charming characters and laugh-out-loud dialogue.