Vegan, Virgin, Valentine

By: Carolyn Mackler

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Mara Valentine is in the home stretch; in just a few more months she will be off to college. But there is a slight wrinkle in her well-laid plans. Her niece Vivienne (called V), who is only one year younger than Mara, is coming to live with her. V is very different from Mara, and they fight a lot. Is it possible that Mara and V will ever be able to find common ground?

©2004 Carolyn Macker (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC.

Critic reviews

"Thoroughly enjoyable." (Booklist)

Good but the narrator !!!

It’s a good enough story to keep you interested, but would be better if the narrator didn’t sound like she was chewing on her own saliva the whole time. overall, three big stars from me! ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Tale About Growing Up

Mara Valentine is a perfect, straight A student with big plans to skip a grade in high school, and
to come out as a second-year college student in Yale. She’s believed all her life that she had to
make up for her 35-year-old “screw up” sister, but when her sister’s child (a niece named “V”
Valentine) comes to stay for the semester, Mara learns that there are other methods to life than
being perfect.

I listened to the novel as an audiobook narrated by Katherine Kellgren. Kellgren
brings out the charm of adolescence through each character, and although some may be
frustrated with her pauses here and there, I was fine, especially since Kellgren did a wonderful
performance with the song sections of the novel. I'm constantly surprised at Kellgren's vast range from fantasy to contemporary titles.

Mackler, being the author of several teen hits
such as, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, knows where to put specific tension
and suspense to make her characters relatable and fun. This coming of age novel was hilarious,
emotional, and satisfying, and it is refreshing to see a non-nuclear family representation.
Although a bit dated, one may pair this novel with Mackler’s current novel—Infinite in Between.
Both novels may be for audiences of 15 and up.

99.9

I love the story, and did not want to stop reading! The only thing that took away from the experience for me was hearing the narrator swallowing or like sound like they're at a Texas spit in their mouth the entire time but that's probably not the issue for most people I'm just a weirdo but looking forward to other things by this author

Predictable, but not in a bad way.

This was not as terrible as the title promised it would be. The only reason I decided to give it a try was because of some interesting reviews, and I don't regret doing so.

The family relationship shift was too predictable, but the characters were complex and insightful enough to make their story worthwhile. What I especially liked about the character trajectories was the growing up transition from oscillating between extremes into finding one's road on a more happy middle ground.

What I did not like was the 'drop out of college for a guy - it's ok' mentality. It was particularly jarring after the book spent most of its length establishing how the same mentality drove another member of the family onto a path of perpetual instability which was actively ruining the lives of innocent bystanders caught in whilrwind. The decision is excused on the page and it's not really a drop out of college - just a drop out of pre-college program decision, but it still grated on me, because it felt like a setback into the extremes behavior. Another plotline I found alarming was the highschool student dating her 22-year-old boss. Although the author did her best to make that relationship sound as benign as possible, I am afraid not all the implications were above board, making the above-mentioned decision seem even more like a reckless mistake. Perhaps it was realistic, but still disappointing, given that the author was trying very hard to portray the characters involved in a very positive light.

The performance was good, but at some point it started to sound as if the narrator's mouth was too dry, and the strange sounds she was making got distracting towards the end. Otherwise the narration was very enjoyable.