Goldengrove

Goldengrove by Francine Prose

What first attracted me to this book was that it was A) on the new release shelf, and B) the cover is beautiful. Yes, I do judge books by their cover.
The book begins with Nico (13 yrs.) and Margaret (17 yrs.) in their boat on the lake just out their door. Nico and Margaret are close. Nico adores Margaret. Everyone adores Margaret. We learn in a short time what everyone adores her for, including her boyfriend Aaron. After Margaret does a great rendition of a song she likes to sing, she dives into the water never to be seen alive again. She died of long QT syndrome (cardiac disorder).
The rest of the book deals with the grief of Nico, her parents and Aaron. Their lives are torn apart. They have serious anger, drug abuse, they try everything they can to get away from their pain. Nico and Aaron begin spending time together. They feel like they can help each other get through the seering pain they feel over Margaret. As it would be with any thirteen year old spending time with a seventeen year old, things eventually get out of control.
There were parts of the book that struck me as very real. The way the family members dealt with their grief seemed very plausable and painful. Nico obsessed about death and health issues. Her father became engrosed in writing a book about the end of the world. Her mother basically blackmailed the pediatrician that didn't diagnose Margaret, for pain killers. And Aaron stopped doing anything that reminded him of Margaret.
The book is being related by Nico. This is were I didn't feel like it was realistic. I had to keep reminding myself that she was only thirteen, not seventeen or older. Even though you find out at the end of the book that she is really telling it from a grown up perspective..........it still didn't fly with me. I thought a more interesting perspective may have been from Aaron's point of view if Prose was going to write with an older frame of mind.

Rating 3.5 Beautiful, painful......timeline sometimes confusing but I will atribute that to grief. If Nico were at least 17 I would probably give this a higher rating.
Rating PG 13 F word a couple of times. Talking about sex, but not descriptive.