Book Details:
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250130042
ISBN-13: 978-1250130044
Summary:
Seventeen-year-old
Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only
if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin. Mercedes lets
the boys get their awkward, fumbling first times over with, and all she asks in
return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time- the kind Mercedes
never had herself.
Keeping what goes on in her bedroom a secret has
been easy- so far. Her absentee mother isn’t home nearly enough to know about
Mercedes’ extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend,
Angela, won’t even say the word “sex” until she gets married. But Mercedes
doesn’t bank on Angela’s boyfriend finding out about her services and wanting a
turn- or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in
bed.
When Mercedes’ perfect system falls apart, she has
to find a way to salvage her reputation and figure out where her heart really
belongs in the process. Funny, smart, and true-to-life, FIRSTS is a
one-of-a-kind young adult novel about growing up.
Links To Buy:
Rating:
Review:
I did not know how I would
feel about this book, even as I kept reading it, I was like hmmmm, HMMMM and
turns out, after all my hmmm-ing and ah-ing, I don’t like this book. Nope. My
expectations were of a smart, witty, insightful book, which to be fair, in some
parts, it was – but the tropes played out in this book, and the main character, just really didn’t sit well with me.
The idea behind this
really pulled me in, especially after seeing so many of my fellow GoodReads all
reading it, so of course I jumped on the bandwagon. 17 year old Mercedes, who
never got her perfect first time, takes it upon herself to sleep with boys,
teach them to do it “right” so that their girlfriends will have a better first
experience than she did. Crikey, right?
I went in with
expectations of a story which repels slut-shaming and promotes body positivity
– and it did; something I came to understand through Mercedes character was
that she uses sex as a control mechanism – she’s got seduction and the lead up
to it down to an art form. But outside of that realm, outside of her
predicating which guys like which outfit, she doesn’t quite know how to form
and maintain relationships. Of any sort, whether that be with her
there-but-absentee-mother, her friend-but-more-than-a-friend Zach, or even her
best friend Angela, from whom she keeps her endless secrets and a betrayal.
I feel like the purpose of
this book was meant to divide the majority, to make people question “why can’t
she sleep with loads of guys and feel good about it, without being shamed by
it?” and the answer to that lies very simply in whether you think the reasons
why she does it, is justified or not. For me. It was clearly not. NOPE.
Mercedes is a somewhat messed up character, craving love and affection but simultaneously
pushing people away. Wanting to provoke a reaction from her ever chirpy mother,
but then pushing back when she gets what she wanted. She’s a bit of a mess,
which is totally fine, because characters are meant to be flawed and broken
especially when their experiences have shaped them so.
But this whole sex
initiation thing she does with guys, is just plain wrong. She sleeps with other
girls boyfriends on purpose, and then lets them go on their merry way, back to
their girlfriends, thinking she’s done them a favour, and she’s actually proud
of what she’s done. Imagine the roles were reversed okay; a guy sleeps with
girls and takes their virginity, so that their boyfriends would have a good
first time with them. YEP. IMAGINE THAT.
Imagine how many guys
could have traipsed their way into her bedroom, claiming to have a girlfriend
they love, they sleep with Mercedes, only to then reveal they don’t have a
girlfriend, they were just looking for an easy way to sleep with someone – and
all they had to do is say they want to make their “girlfriend’s” first time
memorable, and bam. She agrees. Yeah, not great.
In a twisted way, it does
bring to light how a guys first time is a big deal too, and there is a lot of
pressure on them to perform and for there to be fireworks and a huge deal made
about it. It works that way for both parties, girls and boys and this book does
a good job in highlighting the issue through both genders, whether through Toby
or through Angela. But in the case of Mercedes, her reasoning
about why she did what she did, felt so wrong to me. After what she went
through, I would have expected her character to have more of an awareness of
what intimacy means and the vulnerability for a girl – but all this went down
the drain with the clear example of Angela. They’re meant to be best friends –
when Angela’s boyfriend approaches her, in a weird manner which sets alarm
bells ringing in her own head – even if its just suspicions at this point – the
first thing you think she would do is tell the best friend – and not hide it
from her and instead enable the boyfriend’s behaviour?! LIKE. WOT. Let that
sink in.
Also. Okay, come on, Faye’s
solution to Mercedes problem was ridiculous. She wanted to take attention off
Mercedes, so she goes and makes a supposed sex tape and broadcasts it to the
whole school on purpose? Sure it grabs their attention and makes them
momentarily forget about the previous scandal – but is that meant to erase the
heartbreak of all the other girls, whose boyfriends slept with someone else for
their first time, essentially cheating on them? No sir it does not. As a female
character, I felt like if Mercedes can think about these girls and want their
first times to be great, she should have also had the capacity and depth to
think about how those very girls would feel when they found out their
boyfriends had cheated on them, with her, on purpose. Not placing the blame solely on her shoulders, it takes two to tango as they say *eyeroll* but she created this whole thing to start with.
On the other hand, I liked
Angela’s character, definitely more so than Mercedes, because that tape stunt
aside, Faye, to me, was a strong female character, who was aware of her
sexuality and was not apologetic for who she was, even with the series of
unfortunate event *pun intended* that led her to a new school. Despite being
describe as some major hottie, she was kind and honest and not some hated
competition character, only featured to make the main character look better in
contrast to her horrible nature. I’m glad she was instead made to be a friend,
an honest one at that.
Overall though, I was quite
disappointed in this book, I had expectations of the kind of story that could
have evolved from the topics introduced in this, but instead the potential was
left untapped. I am hoping for other authors to pick up on this kinda storyline
though and write strong stories about something along the same lines.
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