Usually I like books that - even if they tell a story which contains a lot of obstacles and hardships for the hero or heroine - hand you over a cup brimful of hope. A strong bond to someone, some kind of emotional sunray, a glimpse of promising future options is there to make me feel content.
Sweethearts is different (and don't you be misled by the sweet and sticky cover). Each and every page is soaked with sadness. About a third through I could not imagine wanting to keep that book after finishing:
Jennifer was once the absolute outsider in primary school: A pudgy, neglected, non-mormon, attention-craving and lonely kid, living in a bad neighborhood, doing her own laundry, because her mother had several jobs and nursing-school to attend in the evenings. One day Jennifer dared to speak to the other outsider in her class: Cameron Quick, a silent boy who had to cope with growing up in even more difficult surroundings than Jennifer. Those two kids became more than friends. They became each other's reason for going on, more or less each other's everything. Jennifer's mother, who did not have much time to spare to counsel her kid, just told her over and over to act more pleasing, to try hard to find other friends and "to be good". So when Cameron suddenly diappeared and the bullies at school gleefully informed Jennifer, that Cameron died, she does not bother to contradict the rumour.
Because Jennifer knew she would not able to stand the pain of living on without Cameron, she heeded her mothers advice. She imagined her old self dead and built up a substitute instead: thin, smiling und outgoing Jenna.
After her mother married a middle class man and enroled her in a private non-mormon school, Jenna even reached a high popularity status - boyfriend inclusive - and tried to convince herself, that she is happy and better off. But all of the past eight years, Jenna has been in mourning missing Cameron like crazy.
So, when Jenna gets a postcard from Cameron - even meets him at school in person - and finds out, that her mother was aware of Cameron's being alive all a long, her carefully built-up sandcastle-life starts to crumble around her feet. The pain is not over, but it hurts in other places now.
I read on and on. I was glued to this sad story that wasn't my cup of tea at all. And I liked both Jennna and Cameron so much. I wanted their lives to become easier so badly. And I decided in the end, that I would like to reread the book sometime later, although the cup handed to me was rather filled with bittersstuff instead of hope. Admirably done, Mrs. Zarr!
