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Summary
Summary
When Nina learns the shocking truth that her best friends Mel and Avery have fallen in love with each other, their friendship is rocked by what feels like the ultimate challenge. But its only the beginning of a painful, funny, and gripping journey as three girls discover who they are and what they really want.
Author Notes
Maureen Johnson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 16, 1973. She received an undergraduate degree in writing from the University of Delaware and a MFA in writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. After college and before graduate school, she was the literary manager of a Philadelphia theater company. Her first book, The Key to the Golden Firebird, was published in 2004. Her other works include 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Devilish, Suite Scarlett, The Last Little Blue Envelope, and the Shades of London series.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Johnson begins this exceptional novel in a lightweight fashion but quickly segues into more serious issues that affect the three young women who make up the Bermudez Triangle. It is the summer before their senior year in Saratoga Springs, NY. At first, organized, serious Nina has trouble adjusting to her leadership workshop at Stanford University. Although she desperately misses Avery and Mel, who are waitresses at a restaurant back home, she quickly falls head over heels for eco-warrior Steve, who has grown up in a commune on the West Coast-so different from Nina's secure middle-class experience. When she returns to New York, she immediately senses that Mel and Avery are keeping secrets and soon discovers that they have become lovers. Rocked to the core, Nina wishes them happiness, but feels excluded and lonely, especially as her long-distance relationship begins to deteriorate. As is typical for teens, the girls obsess ad nauseam over their romantic relationships. Yet this narrow focus lends authenticity to the narrative, and readers become drawn into the characters' lives as they stumble toward adulthood, fall in and out of love, enlarge their circle of friends, and rethink their values. As the story deepens, Johnson does a superb job of subtly developing individual personalities for each one. Although all ends well, it's a long, hard struggle, one that perceptively reflects the real-life ambiguities and shades of gray faced by contemporary adolescents.-Susan Riley, Mount Kisco Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this saga of three best girlfriends in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Nina returns from a summer program at Stanford to discover her friends Avery and Mel kissing in a store dressing room. "The novel becomes more credible as it unfolds," wrote PW. Ages 14-up. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Nina, Avery, and Mel have been best girlfriends forever. The summer before their senior year, Nina experiences first love at an academic summer program, while Mel and Avery explore their romantic feelings for each other. The book delicately and realistically presents the complexities of friendship and young love, with a minimum of sentimentality. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Warm, humorous, and smoothly readable story of three girls who've been friends forever. Nina, Avery, and Mel are the "Bermudez Triangle" (Bermudez being Nina's last name). The summer before senior year of high school, Mel and Avery become a couple. Mel identifies as a lesbian, while Avery refuses to pick any label. The path of their relationship--from friends, to swooning girlfriends, to enemies, back to friends--involves Nina, too, and also their new friend Parker. Meanwhile Nina has an up-and-down, long-distance romance with an environmentalist, while Parker goes from unattainable crush to unattainable crush. Johnson writes Avery's slight punkiness, Mel's sweetness, and Nina's burning drive to achieve with sympathy and color. Class issues come up sometimes, race almost never (despite Nina being interracial while everyone else is white). Sprinkled-in pop-culture references range from spot-on to easily dated, but the characterizations of love--different kinds--are tender even when painful. (Fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 9-12. In her latest novel, the author of The Key to the Golden Firebird BKL Se 1 2004 explores how friendships grow and change, particularly as two friends escalate their relationship to the exclusion of a third. Mel, Avery, and Nina--the Bermudez Triangle--have been inseparable girlfriends since childhood. Then, the summer before senior year, while Nina is at Stanford for a leadership institute, Mel and Avery realize that their feelings for each other may be more than friendship. Johnson deftly portrays Mel's struggle to come to grips with her homosexuality, Avery's confusion and uncertainty about hers, and Nina's hurt and frustration at being left out and losing the comfort of old routines. Once again, Johnson creates believable, likable characters in very real, contemporary high-school situations, ensuring a place for herself among teen readers. She understands, articulates, and validates their lives. --Frances Bradburn Copyright 2004 Booklist