A Scatter Of Light

YA fiction 

     "This is why I was spending the summer ☀️ in Woodacre instead of Martha's Vineyard: a boy took some topless photos of me and posted them on Tumblr.  The photos got around, and somebody spray painted 🎨 slut on my locker, which meant that the school counselor got nasty and called me in to her office."

     Aria, narrator of Malinda Lo's A Scatter Of Light, was the victim of nonconsensual posting.  She wasn't aware that the photos were taken, never mind let loose on Tumblr.  It happened at a house 🏠 party thrown between prom and senior week.  She was drunk.  She followed him into a bedroom.

     But Aria was the one who paid the price.  Her summer ☀️ invitations were rescinded.  This was a major problem because neither of her long divorced parents could supervise her.  Her mother, a famous opera singer, was performing far away.  Her father had been accepted at an all summer writers' colony.  The only available for chaperoning adult in her life is her artist 🎨 grandmother who lives in a small town in California.

     "Jacob didn't seem to get punished at all.  In fact, he only seemed to get more popular.  Somehow the fact that he had managed to get my shirt off made him someone the other guys looked up to, but the fact that I had taken my shirt off made me a slut."

   Have you ever before seen the double standard illustrated as succinctly as in that last sentence?

     Aria is sure that her banishment summer ☀️ will be a real drag.  She loves ❤️ her grandmother.  But what can she do for fun in a rural town with only a post office and a market?

     Plenty it seems.  Aria's grandmother's gardener, Steph, and her friends start including her in their social life.  The book 📖 is set in 2008.  The Supreme Court is about to make an important decision about gay marriage.  Becoming involved in the LGBTQ community, falling in love with someone 💕 in an already established relationship and learning more about her grandmother's legacies turn a summer Aria had expected to be excruciatingly boring into a most engaging narrative of self discovery, one many readers will be able to personally relate to.

On a purrrsonal note, it's the first day of fall semester at UMaine.  I've finally met the student who is going to be the GA for the Commuter Lounge.  With Ben Evans having moved on to Virginia Tech I'm currently the one who knows the most about the place.  My plan is to mentor her this semester so we can build on the momentum I started last semester as an intern.  I am quite excited because I believe we'll work really well together.  (Jules)

My Jules is back to school.  Sigh.  It was a great summer ☀️.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to our new and returning Black Bears.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

    

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone