Zoe Trope

I read this book when I was in high school, and I would recommend it for high school audiences. I feel like the writing style would appeal to them, as would the weird character names, and the heavy angst/confusion. Definitely a good "emo kid" book.

Summary and Evaluation: A barely-edited journal of an actual teenaged girl in her sophomore year at a public high school in Oregon. The title comes from a chapbook she published that year, some of the text of which is included at the beginning of this book. Zoe comes up against a myriad of typical and a-typical high school challenges, from her first real relationship to the sexual assault of a friend to being targeted by the school administration for what she has written, but her main theme show more is love. Love for her friends, for music and art, a passionate love fills every aspect of her life and writing. This title really puts the lie to other books written in the style of diaries of the characters: unlike Terrier, Zoe’s diary is frequently incomprehensible, and written almost half in code, with strange pseudonymns for all of the key players and half-explained references. But that difficulty in reading is a great deal of the book’s charm and appeal; it’s voyeuristic, yes, but the text is incredibly resonant. Disclaimer: I know the author, but didn’t know her during this period.
Booktalk Hook: The fact that this is a diary, in a true sense (I don’t believe that diaries are intended to be private, and in this era of online journaling, I think most teens understand this) is a great hook for many high school aged readers. I’d highlight Zoe’s indie punk and queer sensibilities and referents, which would appeal to those who are looking for a more genuine voice than, say, Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist. A read-aloud of the character list might be an intriguing way to showcase the style of the book. show less

I read this book the year it came out and I probably loved it then.

But, it's funny how your perspective changes once you get older, once you learn who the "anonymous" author is and that she wrote about some of your very good friends and said some very untrue things about them.

Zoe Trope (pseudonym, first name is really Zoe, last name is different but I'll grant her the privacy of keeping her anonymity) graduated the same year as many of my friends at a local Oregon high school. She was show more writing the book while still in school, which she did not graduate early from (as her Wikipedia articles says). A few of the characters in the novel are my friends and they are well aware that it is about them.

I re-read the book last year and couldn't believe how childish it is, which is something it was actually praised for at the time of its release. There are moments of lovely prose and hints of a great author; but she has not produced any books since Please Don't Kill the Freshman's release in late 2003. show less

This is the sweet, dramatic, and ruthlessly truthful memoir of one highschool student in America. If you pick this up, do yourself a favor and read at least fifteen or so pages before you decide whether you like it or not. At first I thought I was going to hate this book, but after five pages I was totally disarmed and ended up loving it.