Natasha Friend

I read this in just over three hours and spent almost as long thinking about it afterward. It's that good. There are numerous books published in recent years about teens experiencing sexual assault, but this takes an unusual path. Nora and her best friend Cam have an argument over attending a party. Cam wants to go, Nora wants to go the the Frat Fest, a fundraiser for local charities. Guess who will be traumatized by morning...It's Nora who was rescued by Alex, a boy who's very good at show more playing baseball, but has to sneak out late at night to practice. When he hears suspicious noises, his night vision goggles, complete with camera, pick up three males hovering over a prone female. Alex runs them off and uses Nora's phone to call Cam.
Come morning, all Nora wants to do is pretend nothing happened, even though the three perpetrators removed her underwear and wrote a number in her crotch area. Thank goodness Cam refuses to let her try to pretend she wasn't assaulted. Enter Asher, Nora's older brother who is Cam's maybe boyfriend, and sees more than others believe he does. No matter how angry and defensive Nora becomes in her desire to pretend she's okay, she can't ignore her growing feelings of unreality and mistrust. When Cam, Alex, and Asher start digging, everything explodes in a messy situation that goes back twenty years, and leaves Nora with a huge sense of betrayal. To say more would give too much away. This is an excellent read, cautionary tale, and example of how contemporary society still refuses to believe victims. It should be part of every library collection. show less

This book was practically perfect. I consider myself a fairly pessimistic person, and always find at least one or two annoyances with every book. Even if they are minor. I think good reviews should always point out the good AND the bad, so I like to explore what I like and what didn't work as well for me. So as I'm reading this book, I'm like WHAT am I going to say that I would change?? Upon closing the book, I realized I got nothing.

So this book is initially about Milo and Hollis (and the show more book features them as duel narrators) and how they are half siblings-- related through their sperm donor. They had met as small kids and haven't kept in touch, but now Milo wants Hollis to help him find out who their sperm donor is. Milo SAYS it's for medical reasons (he has severe allergies), but it becomes obvious that the reason goes way deeper than that.

Eventually they find out that there are more people that had children using the same donor as theirs-- meaning they have OTHER half-siblings. They all join in group email sessions discussing everything from their feelings about finding their donor to home life to genetics to everyday life things.

Milo has this pot-head friend at school, and I kind of thought ah-ha!! This is what I'm not going to like about this book. The D-Bag friend. But, no. JJ freaking GREW on me. Once we really get to know JJ, it's impossible not to like him.

So what exactly did I love about this book: Besides everything?? Okay, I loved the way the author handled Hollis and her hook-ups with Gunner (a football player that she was using to get back at a friend and also distract her from her feelings). It could have left me with a bad taste in my mouth-- but I kind of loved Hollis for it. FINALLY!! A girl who admits that she likes hooking up. It's okay for us to do it too people!! Also, I think a lot of people use sex and sexy-times as a way to feel good about themselves or for all sorts of various reasons that have nothing to do with the person they're hooking up with. I love that that was explored.

I loved all the siblings and their relationships with each other!! I loved the parents and all their issues and complicated feelings about the kids wanting to find the donor. I loved how Ms. Friend took us on a journey-- and that journey ended up being really exciting. By mid-point in the book, I was on pins and needles waiting for them to figure out how to find their donor & wondering what this man would think about finding out his sperm donation resulted in having 5 children.

This was the most unique book that I've read in a long time. It didn't go into any usual tropes and it didn't randomly let a romance take over the plot when there were bigger issues to deal with. I can't wait to read more by Natasha Friend!!

OVERALL: This book needs WAY more attention. I thought it was witty, silly, nuanced, and one of the most unique YA books I've read in a long time. Do yourself a favor and add this to the TBR.

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This book is a YA essential in my opinion. The writing is fantastic and makes a mystery flow better than I have seen in any modern mystery writer. She gives readers enough to hold onto every chapter, meaning that it is very hard to get bored with. The subject matter is heavy but important to write about, although I'll throw in a trigger warning for SA as well.

One thing I don't like about this book is it's portrayal of feminism. It is a weird critique, because Friend writes about the MeToo show more movement very well, but the feminist characters are different. They all seem very extreme, and to a reader who is unfamiliar with the modern feminist movement, or one that is opposed to it, it would be hard for them to catch onto it. show less

I was looking forward to reading this book, but it didn't quite deliver. The characters felt younger than they were and a lot of the focus was on Julius, Quinn's severely autistic, nine-year-old brother, rather than Quinn herself who was struggling with alopecia. Julius took up a lot of his parents' time, especially his mother, and I felt sometimes she didn't give Quinn the attention she needed.

Then there was Nick, a fellow student who had lost both his legs in a horrible snowmobile show more accident. I felt there was just too much drama and trauma in "How We Roll" making the plot unrealistic. Also, the romance between Quinn and Nick was fairly bland. They would have been better off as just friends.

Despite these negatives, I thought Ms Friend handled Quinn's alopecia instructively and with sensitivity. Even though I didn't like Quinn's so called friends at her old school, her new friends were much nicer and more accepting of Quinn's condition when she finally told them. However, i hated how the author phonetically wrote their Boston accents. I also thought that most of the characters, including Nick, needed more depth.

"How We Roll" was, overall, a sweet story for younger readers about acceptance, courage and moving forward. show less