Golden
By Sandie Angulo Chen,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Touching senior-year novel encourages self-reflection.
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What's the Story?
In author Jessi Kirby's newest contemporary YA novel GOLDEN, senior Parker Frost isn't just hoping to be valedictorian, she's planning to win the annual full scholarship named after the beloved couple, Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz -- who died 10 years earlier in a tragic car accident -- and head to Stanford University. But her plans to concentrate on the scholarship's essay are derailed when she comes across Julianna's senior journal, an assignment a teacher gives all his seniors and then returns to them a decade later so they can read what they wrote when they were 18. Since Julianna is dead, Parker decides to sneak a peek at the journal, which is supposed to reflect on the Mary Oliver quote \"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life.\" As Parker keeps reading the journal, she discovers that maybe Julianna and Shane's golden-couple relationship isn't what it seemed.
Is It Any Good?
Kirby is particularly adept at creating central characters who have a lot of emotional issues to overcome, whether it's grief, or damaged parental relationships, or the longing of unrequited love. Through Parker and Julianna, Kirby continues to hone her ability to portray girls on the cusp of womanhood, girls who keep a part of themselves closed off and shut tight and in need of someone to see them, really see them for who they are -- not simply a straight-A student but a poet in the making, not just one half of the town's golden couple but a budding artist. Parker's relationship with Julianna (via the senior journal) is in a way even more intimate, more kindred than her best friendship with Kat, a faithful BFF but one who doesn't understand the personal crisis Parker is experiencing.
Readers who primarily want to read about romance should know that while Parker has a sweet chemistry and ongoing tension with Trevor, charming senior flirt extraordinaire, their relationship is a slow, slow build that takes a refreshing back seat to Parker's story of self-reflection. Parents may cringe at Parker's controlling mother, who wants to micromanage every aspect of her superstar daughter's life, but it's a good reminder that teens need parental guides, not dictators. One of the best parts of the book is how every chapter begins with a quote from Parker's favorite poet, Robert Frost, whose words will make you contemplate the joys of the proverbial "road less traveled."
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the relationship between Parker and her parents. Is it healthy? Was her mother being helpful or smothering? Do you agree with Kat that Parker needed to do something rebellious?
Golden includes an epistolary story within a story. Which plot line and set of characters do you feel more connected to by the end of the book: Parker's or Julianna's? Do you think you would have done the same thing as Parker in keeping the journal, or Julianna, in hiding the truth?
Unlike conventional young adult books, Golden casts Parker's romance as a secondary plot development. Do you like that the romantic tension was there but not the point of the story?
Book Details
- Author: Jessi Kirby
- Genre: Coming of Age
- Topics: Friendship, High School
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Publication date: May 14, 2013
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 12 - 17
- Number of pages: 288
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: July 12, 2017
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