A Little Friendly Advice

by Siobhan Vivian

This story begins on the eve of Ruby's 16th birthday. Her mom's given her a present, all of her friends have arrived, and she's gearing up for a fun night. That is, until her dad--who she hasn't seen since he left her and her mom, years ago--shows up at the apartment. Pretty soon it feels like all the relationships in her life are unraveling, and Ruby doesn't know who to turn to or what to do.

A Little Friendly Advice was refreshing in that its focus was on relationships with friends and family, which are two of the biggest factors in a teenager's life. But usually those themes tend to get neglected in a lot of YA books to make room for a focus on problems/issues (which are factors too, but always alongside friend-and-family relationships) and romance. When a boy does show up in Ruby's life, he doesn't suddenly sweep her off her feet and solve all of her problems. That relationship is muddy and unclear, too. Complicated. The book really nailed how, as you grow older, relationships that used to be black and white - with relatives, or with friends - suddenly aren't clear-cut anymore. Suddenly there's angst and grayness.

Everything about A Little Friendly Advice felt incredibly real. It had passages that hurt a little to read (out of either a sharp loveliness or out of pain) because it was as if it was myself I was reading about. Not necessarily because I've been in the same situations as Ruby (although a couple of them rang specifically true), but because I have felt the same things. Little snapshots of excruciating truth in some of the details were beautiful. And when a book does that for me--makes me gasp because of its rawness, its rightness . . . there's nothing better to ask for in a reading experience.