About a Girl

Eine persönliche Review aus dem Juni 2015

Ein Liebesbuch. Ein Genre, das mich nie fangen konnte.
Ein Jugendbuch. Ich sage oft, dass sei eigentlich nur die Fortsetzung von "Paulchen lernt Zähne putzen", eine Geschichte konstruiert für die Botschaft, die Moral. Und auch, obwohl ich einige Ausnahmen - unter anderem "Über ein Mädchen" - lesen durfte, ist das meine Meinung über die Mehrheit der Bücher, die unter diese diffuse Genrebezeichnung fallen.

Dennoch waren meine Erwartungen an das Buch zwigespalten: Einerseits war ich in heller Aufregung, weil beide Hautpfiguren junge Frauen sind, andererseits fürchtete ich, enttäuscht zu werden.

Der Anfang konnte mich auch nicht packen - zu oberflächlich beschrieben waren Annas Gefühle für show more die Musikerin Flynn. In der Phase ihres Liebeskummers kam ich ihr näher, empfand Mitgefühl, um mich dann im zweiten Teil, der Vorgeschichte Annas, für sie zu begeistern: Sie fühlt sich stets in einer Außenseiterrolle - wie ich. Sie hat damit zu kämpfen, dass sie Frauen liebt - wie ich. Sie flüchtet sich permanent in Literatur - wie ich. Soweit zu Anna.
Aber auch Flynn ist für mich symphatisch und verständlich - in ihrem Freiheitsstreben und ihrem Musikgefühl.

Beide sind großartig und doch ist bald klar, dass es mit ihnen nicht klappen kann: Anna empfindet Flynns Gitarre als Konkurrenz, statt zu verstehen, dass es ein Teil von jener ist. Flynn andererseits versteht Literatur bloß nicht, sie ist auch noch desinteressiert. Allen voran fehlt beiden das Verständnis, dass gewisse Dinge in Beziehungen auf den Tisch gehören: Flynns toter Bruder oder Annas Erfahrungen mit Depressionen.
Es kann nicht klappen und so ist die Trennung der beiden fast eine Erleichterung ...
Zurück bleibt einiges: Ich wünsche Anna eine passende Partnerin (so real fühlt sich die Geschichte für mich an), fühle mich irgendwie elementar und verstanden. show less

This is a story about a girl who would like to find love and be accepted for who she is. Her attraction, is towards women, she has always known this but has been unable to express her desires due to her inexperience or age, 19. It’s another YA story about coming of age and finding one self.

Anna is primarily concerned about unresolved desires. She feels she is unlovable and this makes it difficult for her to establish relationships and friendships to a lesser extent. She knows herself to be intelligent yet she rejects this, she know herself to be independent and strong yet she fears this.

When Anna falls for Flynne she discovers that her unrelenting desire to be loved is once more incomplete. She finds the Flynn ambiguous nature show more greatly disappointing. Anna is more stable and committed in nature yet she finds herself attracted to women who are more adventurous than committed. This dilemma creates heart ache for Anna but she is able to work through it and become more decisive and self assured as a result.

A very frank and well structured look at a young girl coming to terms with her sexuality. Horniman writes beautifully and creates the self talk with regards to intimacy, that all women must experience really well. The book is richly textured around the character of Anna, with particular reference to Dostovesky's, 'Tales from the underground' as the character she identifys with. show less

Anna's past is dark and painful, she never meant for the bad things to happen, she never meant to feel the things she feels, she never meant to be so different, but she couldn't help it. And it was all her fault.

Moving to Lismore had seemed ideal; Anna had a job she enjoyed and her own apartment, what more could she want? And then one day she saw a girl with a white guitar running down the street, and from the moment she heard that girl play she was in love. But she knew that she would never see that girl again.

Days later, though, she did. Her name was Flynn, and when she played she called herself Every Little Thing, but to Anna she was everything. The day they met they sat on Flynn's roof drinking tea and eating banana bread. The day show more they met Anna was the happiest she had ever been.

The only problem was Anna wasn't sure Flynn shared her feelings for her. There would be days, weeks, when Flynn could not be found, other days she was constantly by her side. But there was always something between them. Anna assumed it was Flynn's secrets keeping them apart, but Anna had been keeping secrets of her own.

This is a story of two girls, a couple of cats and a teapot named Lavinia. A story of falling in love, having your heart broken and losing those you love. A story about learning that everyone is different in their own way. A simple, honest and moving story About A Girl who just wants to be loved. show less

Actual rating: 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3, not because it's poorly written (it has a dreamlike, disconnected, but lyrical style that occasionally, at least for me, becomes a little pretentious) but because I didn't enjoy reading it. A solid "meh" from me. Real review later possibly.

It was sent to me as a YA book, but I think it straddles the YA/adult market, learning more toward 20-somethings than high schoolers.