Ditched: A Love Story (edition 2012)

When Justina’s best friend Ian asks her to go to the prom with him, she’s surprised. She’s never been the kind of girl to dream about the perfect prom night. She accepts, thinking that if anyone can deliver the most perfect prom night, it’ll be him. When Justina finds herself literally in a ditch after being kicked out of a car, she has to retrace her steps over the course of the night to figure out why Ian would ditch her and what she can do to salvage their relationship.

Robin Mellom’s debut novel is fast-paced and frequently funny. It’s also a little bit gimicky and saccharine. However, readers looking for a fun, light read about a disastrous prom night will find themselves satisfied by Justina’s crazy tale of woe.

The gimmick starts with Justina remembering the events of the night through the stains on her dress. As she tells her story to a gas station attendant (while snacking on the types of food found in a convenience store), she recounts the stories that led to each mark on her dress (which has shoes dyed to match it). While it’s a creative approach to telling the story, the premise starts to wear thin the further into the story Justina gets. As the night’s shenanigans get more ludicrous, so do the stains on her dress and the situations she finds herself in. While it’s certainly entertaining, there’s something inauthentic about the tale.

While the book is populated with a cast of vibrant characters, the short time span in which the story takes place means that the reader never really gets to know any of them. Readers can tell that Justina is a bit of a character herself and that she has feelings for Ian, but this is all through Justina telling, not showing. The supporting characters fall by the wayside, getting moments to shine but ultimately filling the required stereotypes for this wacky story. (At times, this feels like a novelization of a Disney movie.)

It’s an easy read, and it’s one that I’d recommend to reluctant readers. Because it’s pretty tame, it would work well for younger teens. The event of prom is guaranteed to attract a certain demographic to be sure. Ditched hits bookshelves today.

Ditched by Robin Mellom. Disney-Hyperion: 2012. Electronic galley accepted for review via NetGalley. ( )

I ended up really enjoying Ditched: A Love Story. It was fun, quirky, and had quite a few unique little touches that really added to the whole reading experience (plus, the ending was just fabulous, IMHO). The story of a prom night gone terribly, horribly, wrong, the book flip flops back and forth between the present--Justina explaining her tale of prom woe to a sympathetic 7-11 employee and a fellow customer--and the past, her whole prom night experience as it happened. The present chapters are titled with the names of the foods and beverages Justina consumes while telling her dire narrative, and the past chapters get their names from the stain and/or body blemish that Justina will receive during that part of the evening (and are accompanied by a photo of the offense on her dress or person--very cute touch). It truly is a story of the Worst. Prom. Ever. Poor Justina's night starts out in questionable fashion (her escort says they should go just "as friends"), turns ominous (her mother decides to relive her own prom experience through her daughter and talks Justine into dyeing her shoes to match and her date to bring a similarly dyed rose corsage), and then borders into horrific (food goes flying--all at Justina, there is an extreme wardrobe malfunction, other guys are accidentally kissed and danced with--and that's just the first few chapters). Even though Justina--and her audience--are in despair throughout much of the novel, it all comes together nicely at the end and all the unclear and apparently incriminating events are satisfactorily explained. Definitely the book to pick up when you're feeling that the world is out to get you--within a chapter or two, you'll be laughing out loud and ever so grateful that whatever is going on with you, it's not THAT bad. And then the ending will just make you smile. This is a YA author to watch. ( )

Justina's story begins on the morning after Prom. She indulges in a bit of temporary amnesia, for the audience's benefit, not hers. She wonders about a tattoo, a bruise in the shape of a french fry and the various stains on her dress, even though it soon becomes apparent that she remembers everything. This is definitely the low point of the novel. It certainly does grab your interest, but I didn't appreciate the pretense that she didn't know what had happened.

However, even as her clearly perfect memory frustrated me, I loved finding out her story bit by bit. Justina drags her unfortunate self to the 7-11, the good one, and begins unloading her depressing tale of woe onto the clerk (Gilda), later joined by a customer (Donna). This method of storytelling is a classic because it works. Plus, I just loved the way the chapters alternated between the food she was fed at the 7-11 and the various injuries and stains she attained during the night before.

Ditched is one of those stories where every possible bad luck thing that can happen does. Of course, some of them are Justina's fault, but many of them are not. A big bit of the blame goes to her mom, who thought Justina should dye her shoes to match her iridescent blue dress from the thrift store. It was also mom's idea to have bought said dress, which turns out to be a magnet for stains and not made of the sturdiest stuff.

If you're looking for some good schadenfreude, Ditched will not disappoint. I certainly feel a little better about missing out on the prom. ( )

Ian has asked Justina to the prom. They are best friends, but she is ready for more, and hopes he is too! Yet a sequence of mishaps and missed communications make for a very unusual prom night. ( )

Absolutely adorable! ( )