Review: Girl Parts - John M. Cusick

Where I got it: Library
Rating: 2.5 stars 
Cover Rating: 5 stars (yes yes and yes!)
Genre: Young Adult 
Publication Date: August 10, 2010
Publisher: Candlewick
Page Count: 218 p.

A young girl kills herself online. Because of this many kids who watched this happen are deemed dissociative. The solution is presented by Sakora industries: a Companion. Rose is the first Companion of her kind and is sent to David. Every time David tries to put the moves on Rose however, he is greeted with an electric shock. When Rose gets tossed aside after David bores of her, she finds Charlie. Charlie seems to be a much better person, but Rose's heart is still drawn to David.

This book fell pretty flat for me. There was a lot of interesting potential, but then nothing really happened. There was no real resolution at the end either. Maybe this book was simply a 218 page metaphor for the fact that we are all robots, programmed a certain way until we decide to want something more and break away from the herd. If that was this books goal, it succeeded. The suicide in the beginning sparked my interest, I wanted to see what would happen and how that suicide would play into the book. It doesn't. The suicide is mentioned in passing. Same with Sakora. They come on very strong and there is nothing after that. They are set up in a big brother sort of fashion and then taper off into oblivion. This book could have been very enjoyable an entertaining, I liked reading it, but at the end I was frustrated that there was no solution. The characters weren't as developed as I would have liked either, what was wrong with David at the end? Do I even care? All in all I would not recommend this novel and it's a shame because the cover is very pretty and the title amuses me.

First Line:
"The room was empty and black save for the blue eye of the computer and the yellow wedge beneath the door."

Favorite Line:
"Would the fairies leave any more babies in his mummy's tummy?"