What do readers think of Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin? Write your own review.

Never underestimate the power of a mother, or social media! Aviva, a summer intern for a congressman, reveals something to her mother. Is Mother morally responsible to "fix It"? Does Aviva blogging about it on social media make it worse? These dilemmas spin the web for the very enjoyable read, Young Jane Young.

I loved The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry and could not wait to read Young Jane Young. From the very start, Zevin had me laughing out loud with her descriptions of Rachel's online dating experiences. I love a book that puts me in a good mood. The author creates a variety of female characters from young to old and I empathized with them all. The story is one we can all relate to, everyone has a past and everyone makes mistakes. Zevin tells a wonderful story teller. She keeps the reader interested until the final page. This is a truly enjoyable read. I cannot wait to share it with my family and friends.

It's been quite awhile since I've enjoyed a book as much as Young Jane Young! Zevin writes wonderfully witty prose and her characters are incredibly real. I hardly put the book down and laughed aloud several times. From the very first page to the last, it was thoroughly enjoyable!!!

A HUGE thank you to Gabrielle Zevin for sharing her wonderfully delightful Cinderella story which should be read by anyone who is a daughter, mother, father, grandparent, best friend, or has a chapter in their lives they don't wish to be read. Through a series of magically written narratives with equally resonating voices, Zevin gives anyone who has ever fallen from grace the gift of redemption, a happily ever after.

Easy read about a Monica Lewinsky-like intern who finds redemption. This book manages to deal with serious themes in a very funny, easy way. Another book with a quirky, precocious child (think Where'd You Go Bernadette or Zevin's other book The Storied Life of A.j. Fikry) but I found Ruby to be cute. Some of the nuts and bolts of the book felt clunky, but these moments were few and far between. Would be a great book club read that people could breeze through yet still have substantive conversations about.

The more I think about this book, the more I realize how ingeniously Zevin constructed it. First, each section has a different narrating character, telling one part of the story from their perspective. Like other books that use this mechanic, the sum of all these sections brings us the full story. What is different in this book is that each character tells their story in a very different way. For example, Ruby tells her story through her emails to her pen pal. Later, Jane tells her own story in a retrospective voice, which she frames as if it is one of those R. L. Stine "Goosebumps" create-your-own-adventure books. (They're the ones where at a certain part of the story the reader has to decide between one of two options on how to proceed, and with that choice moves to the particular relevant next page. The idea was that you could read them repeatedly, making different choices each time, and thereby get a different story each time.) The other sections are the usual types of narratives, but these two were exceptional in their distinctive construction. What Zevin achieves with all of this is to give each of her characters a very singular voice.

Much like with Zevin's previous novel (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry), readers will find this book filled with heavy doses of humor, both light and wryly dry. What surprised me somewhat was how authentically Jewish these characters all were. I understand that her father is Jewish, and I'm sure she drew much from his female family members for these portraits. Even so, that's not always a terribly accurate research source, and yet I couldn't find anything that sounded even a little out of place here, and since inaccuracies regarding anything Jewish is a pet peeve of mine, Brava to Zevin for that. However, it isn't all fun and games particularly because the central event here is a sex scandal, the ramifications of which can be extremely serious. It seems that Zevin was thinking about a type of smaller-scale Monica Lewinsky situation when she wrote this, and tried to imagine how difficult it would be to rebuild a life after having become so notorious. Deeper still, with this book Zevin is essentially exploring the ramifications of the choices we make, both good and bad. This is why the "Goosebumps" section of this book is so effective - because it allows us to look at this on a lighter plane, without diminishing the lesson in the process.

I'll end by saying that I felt that Zevin's conclusion of this book was very nearly masterful, but not quite. In general, I often prefer books that make readers think about them afterwards and with this book, Zevin doesn't give away too much regarding the future of these characters after the last page. However, in this case, though, I'm of two minds regarding the biggest question (of which I can't say more, as that would be a huge spoiler). On the one hand, I really wanted to know the answer, but on the other hand, I'm not sure that Zevin would have given me the outcome I would have preferred. More importantly, I can't really tell if including either result might have ruined the book for me or not, although I'm positive she could have pulled off either conclusion. I admit that this frustrated me just enough to knock off half a star, so despite my overall enjoyment of this novel, I can only give it four and a half stars (which is still a very good rating, just half a star less than I gave Fikry).

At once reminiscent and referencing of the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal, Young Jane Young is the story of an intern who has an affair with a Congressman and what happens when the affair becomes public knowledge. The story is told from differing viewpoints, most hilariously that of Jane's mother Rachel. The narratives are from differing points in time– before, during and after the affair, and they are not linear, and yet this telling works surprisingly well.

The tone of the novel is fairly light, reminiscent of "Bridget's Jones' Diary" and "The Rosie Effect", and the fourth wall is breached when the reader is asked "What Would You Do"- type questions, with multiple answers provided. The answer that is the one that the characters choose is, of course, never the correct one, the one that we, the all-knowing reader would have chosen. Choices are a big theme in this novel, and some readers may find themselves exasperated by the poor choices made in the story, but without poor choices/mistakes, there would be no learning, no consequences and definitely, no story! So if you have always made the right choice, never led with your heart instead of your head, never taken a risk, well this novel may frustrate and annoy you. For the rest of us, this is a fun, easy, read with memorable characters, a few surprises, some insights and many laughs.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The novel was character driven through a period of history most on us can remember and probably have opinions about. The author stays away from political ramifications and guides us through the lives of mother and daughter and a glimpse of grandmother. Pay attention to the details and the revelations at the end will surprise you.