College freshman at Indiana University (go Hoosiers!), Emma is stuck. She can't get herself out of this place where everything that happens loops back to the fact that her best friend, Josh, dumped her and decked her during their senior year of high school. Emma remembers being happy as a child but can't figure out how to get there as an adult. When her parents show up at her dorm room one day telling her they've won LOTTO CASH, it seems like happiness should be easily obtained because they can do anything they want to. Cars, clothes, vacations...you name it, they can pay for it immediately.
Emma tries everything she can think of to make her happy again. She visits all the places she loved as a child, places she remembers being happy. She throws out all her old clothes and tries to simplify her life by only wearing black and white. However, none of this makes her happy because she has always compared her happiness to what makes her family happy. Emma must figure out what makes her happy.
Soooooo, I liked the book just fine. It's set in my birth state and it prominently features a goose in the beginning (I have a weakness for geese - it's a long story). It's also fun to think about how I would spend that much money! But (you knew it was coming, didn't you?).....Emma feels less like a 18 year old trying to figure out where she fits in the world and more like someone going through a mid-life crisis. The randomness of emotions may be very similar between the two types of freak-outs, but the outward results are typically very different. Or maybe Emma's just an old soul and I'm too critical. Either way, that's my opinion and at least I'm honest.
Oh and it really bugs the living daylights out of me that the covers picture a domesticated duck and not a goose!!!!!!
And there's a lot of language. Don't say you weren't warned.
Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list.
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