I googled teen fiction just to see what type of books would pop up. I discovered endless possibilities: fantasy, science fiction, romance, contemporary, mystery, LGBT, historical fiction and many more.
My teen fiction If Only… falls under the contemporary genre. It deals with real life teen issues. Many teens will be able to relate to any one of the issues best friends Lisa and G (the protagonists) deal with throughout their story. Some of my previous posts concentrate on Lisa’s learning disabilities. In this post, I would like to concentrate on how Lisa’s learning disabilities affect her relationships, especially with her best friend G.
Lisa and G, are the best of friends. They can talk about anything and share everything, especially thoughts that are close to their heart whether they be happy thoughts or thoughts filled with anguish. Lisa struggles through school each and every day. She shares her feelings, her frustrations, her everything, with G. Lisa is lucky to have found that “one” friend who sticks by her and supports her through it all… up until a certain point. Teen friendships can be fragile, and even best friends split under duress. And these girls have a lot of angst in their lives.
G is always there for Lisa until high school gets in the way. Slowly but surely they take different paths. G moves forward academically, and popularity is on her side even though she has some serious issues of her own hovering over her head.
Lisa struggles with her learning disabilities and her school grades plummet. This triggers frustration, anger and negative behavior. Lisa feels more and more alone as her peers begin to snub her. Unfortunately, Lisa takes out a great deal of her frustration on G by throwing insulting and very hurtful comments her way. G, on the other hand doesn’t take out her frustrations on Lisa but again G’s problems are different. If you’re curious, read my teen fiction If Only…
Lisa’s struggle also affects her relationships with her teachers, with her principal and very much so affects her relationship with her mother. Not every parent has the tools to deal with all of Lisa’s issues, especially when she begins hanging out with the “wrong” kind of people. They influence her in a negative way, introducing her to alcohol, drugs, etc. and Lisa has to suffer the consequences of her bad choices.
When Lisa was younger, Lisa made the perfect best friend choice. G found a way to re-enter Lisa’s life when Lisa hit rock bottom. And that’s what best friends do.