This teen novel about high school
seniors who form a club as a way to vouch for their virginity is moderately
entertaining, and it explores several issues concerning teenage sexuality, but
it is not particularly well-written and the plot is formulaic.  The four female
protagonists are all stellar students who expect to get into the best colleges,
but they are not sure they can afford them.  Then comes the announcement of a new
scholarship, which in addition to academic excellence also required that the
recipient be pure in soul and body.  Eva, Kai, Mandy and Debbie each have their
own distinct personalities and problems, and this does give the novel a bit
more depth than you will find in most "young adult" novels dealing
with dating and sexuality.  Debbie has lots of boyfriends, while Mandy has a
steady boyfriend; Kai is single but, bizarre, an ex-boyfriend moves into her
house, and Eva is single but has a crush on a boy she is too shy to talk to. 
Each girl has her own struggles with temptation, as well as battles with
parents and difficulties with school work.  Of course, everything works out
well in the end, with each girl learning something valuable and managing to
deal with their lives maturely.  Despite the theme of frustrated sexuality, the
book ends up being rather bland and even prudish by the standards of prime time
television.  If you can read it without skipping some paragraphs, pages or
chapters, you have more patience than me.

© 2006 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews.  His main
research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Children, Sexuality