Synopsis:
Doomed loves, failed families, nixed dreams—someone else's leftovers are heaped on our plates the day we come into this world.
Big Macs and pop tunes mask the emptiness as Madeline watches her mom drink away their welfare checks. Until the day Tad, a quirky McDonald's counter boy, asks Madeline out for a date, and she gets her first taste of normal. But with a life that’s anything but, how long can normal really last?
Hanging with Jeremy, avoiding Mam, sticking Do Not Disturb Post-its on her heart, Desiree's mission is simple: party hard, graduate (well, maybe), get out of town. But after Desiree accepts half a meatball grinder, a cold drink, and a ride from her mother's boyfriend one rainy afternoon, nothing is ever simple again.
Too many AP classes. Workaholic mom. Dad in prison. Still, Ariel's sultry new boyfriend, Shane, manages to make even the worst days delicious. But when an unexpected phone call forces a trip to visit a sick grandmother she's never met, revealing her family's dark past, Ariel struggles to find the courage to make the right choice for her own future.
As three girls from three different decades lives converge, they discover they are connected ways they could never imagine. Each of them finds strength that brings her closer to healing a painful past, and faith that there is a happier future.
Madeline is living in New York in 1977 and she hates her life. She hates her body, she hates her mom, and she hungers for a life that is not her own. She lacks love and affection but finds it surprisingly in a sweet boy named Tad. But he is not the answer to her hopes and dreams as she finds out.
Desiree is living in New York in 1993 and her life is far from perfect. Her mom seems to hate her, her mom's boyfriend is paying her too much attention, and Desiree cannot imagine ever escaping from her life. She wants something different, something better, she just does not know how to get it.
Ariel is living in 2009 with her mom who loves her, with a best friend, and with someone new in her life: her boyfriend Shane. Then her mom gets a phone call that changes absolutely everything in their lives. Ariel doesn't know if it will be for better or for worse.
Each character has a distinctive voice in this story and the time periods are distinguished subtly enough that you get the flavor of the decade that each girl is living in, without being inundated by reminders of that decade. Michelle D. Kwasney also distinguishes each character by a somewhat different writing style. And for Desiree, her pieces of the story are all written in verse which conveys so well what she is going through.
Any astute reader is going to figure out very easily how these three individuals connect, particularly given the years between. However, that does not make the story any less emotional or captivating. After all, it's about the journey more than the end result and this book certainly stands by that old adage. Kwasney does a great job in conveying the cyclical pattern these women are falling into, both with jobs, men, and issues. However, she also shows how these characters fight those patterns to try to make a better life for themselves and their loved ones. The lives these characters face are not easy by any means, but they have meaning and purpose, even when that purpose seems to be in a not so great direction.
This could perhaps be considered an "issues" type book but the writing is so fluid and insightful while also being gritty and realistic about the situation these girls are facing that the issues don't seem so immediately obvious or typical.
History is one of my favorite subjects and it's wonderful to see it being used in such an interesting way in Blue Plate Special. The little things add up and mean a lot in a person's life and Michelle D. Kwasney conveys that well. This is an enjoyable, if sometimes predictable, story but I think teens will find the struggles of these characters still relevant and vital to the lives they are living now.
(Book received from Amazon Vine.)
