After a local girl commits suicide live on the internet, and no one tries to stop it, the high school counselor determines to interview all of the students. In his interview, it is determined that David suffers from “dissociative disorder” and is prescribed that he utilize a Companion – a robot designed to encourage human interaction. At first David would have none of it until the day that it arrived. Rose, red hair flowing over tight curves, was in David’s words, “smoking hot!”
Girl Parts
by John M. Cusick
Candlewick Press
August 2010
Charlie is a geek. He and his scientist father live off the grid across the lake from rich kids like David. In the aftermath of the suicide the councilor determined that Charlie is depressed and prescribes anti-depressants. Rejecting this prognosis, Charlie lives in anonymity longing for an opportunity to ask out the bombastic celebrity star of the school drama department but worries that she is out of his league.
While Charlie pines away for his crush, David and Rose slowly move forward in their relationship always getting further around the bases. David becomes consumed with getting into Rose’s pants but is hindered in his lusts by Rose’s programming which sends a violent shock through David if he touches her prior to building up their relationship past a certain level. Like a game, David puts in the time ranking up their relationship until the night finally comes where Rose takes off her clothes for him.
As the story progresses the three characters intertwine perversely. Charlie does end up asking out Rebecca, the actress, but ineptly handles the date causing more doubt and depression. Charlie and Rose end up friends through happenstance and end up having an easy relationship, without hindrance of sexual tension. David ends up hooking up with his ex-girlfriend in college who, after waiting months to get into Rose’s pants, he ends up getting into hers for a brief one night stand. Afterwards, she promptly takes her leave of him. By the end of the book more characters end up having sex and, in fact, the book seems to revolve only around sex.
Lost are the issues that the book started with so promisingly, like the effect of cyber interaction instead of social interaction, dissociation, and the lack of connection with other humans. Instead this book devolves into the search for sex.
I still held out hope late in the book that the moral of the story would be the emptiness of the search and the glory would be found in true human friendship. This was supported by David’s careless one night stand and the way it cheapened sex for him. But in the end, at the culmination, it is all about sex; all about girl parts.
So what are we to take from this book? That the ultimate goal of high school students is to connect sexually to other high school students? This is after all a “14 and up” book according to the publisher – an age that would be entirely inappropriate to recommend this book to.
A fast starting book with lots of promise, Girl Parts ultimately goes off course midway and by the end has completely lost its purpose and we are left with an emptiness more pronounced but less profound than the one we begin with. As much as I love the idea, I cannot recommend this book.
