Book Review: Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You by Joyce Carol Oates

Two or Three Things I Forgot to Tell You
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Released: Ausgust 21st 2012
Review Source: Harper Teen
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) Joyce Carol Oates masterfully captures the unique experience of being a teenage girl in this provocative and poignant new novel in the vein of Wintergirls and Thirteen Reasons Why.

It wasn't like she had not warned us.

It wasn't like she had not prepared us.

We'd known that something was wrong those last several months.

But then, Tink hasn't actually vanished. Tink is gone, and yet—she is here somewhere, even if we can't see her.

Tink? Are you—here?

Joyce Carol Oates in an author that I’ve seen frequently when I’ve browsed the shelves of a school library. She is a New York Selling Best author especially in the are of young adult literature. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the experience of reading one of her novels. This was a first. I read this book in a day, truly committed to the lives of Merissa, Tink and Nadia. The novel is arranged into three distinct parts. Each part featuring one girl. In this novel we are presented with aspects of teenage life, that unfortunately is occurring in some of today’s schools. It was slightly depressing knowing that one of the girls has already done the inevitable. Her actions ultimately effect the choices that the other girls make within their life and high school experience.

I’m very torn about the amount of details that I provide for this review. However know, that this novel deals with the following issues: bullying, sexting, suicide, inappropriate relationships etc. This would surely be a novel that I would suggest would be more suitable for the upper high school female student. I appreciate the fact that the author is capturing the issues that teenagers face today. However, I found that the beginning of the novel was slightly written at a slow pace making it hard for the reader to grasp what was truly going in the story. Once you get through Part 1, Part 2 and 3 flow a whole lot smoother in your mind when reading. In conclusion, I could see this book as a choice for a young adult female book club pick where discussions of events is facilitated by an adult.