Gravel Queen (ISBN 068984994X)

Cute, frothy entertainment.:
This is basically an after-school special in novel form. Well, make that novella form. It's only 150 pages. The three main characters spend all their time hanging around at the local park, wandering aimlessly through their town, sighing dramatically about how incredibly bored they are. True to life? Sure. Interesting? No. The protagonist is a bored, sort of passive-agressive girl named Aurin who has a crush on a girl named Neila. (The author apparently has a fondness for weird names.) Her moody, attention-grabbing friend Kenney is jealous of the time she spends with Neila. It's never really explained why. Aurin resents Kenney, but that is never really gone into in depth. NOTHING in this book is gone into in any depth. It's a quick, superficial skim into the pool of teenager-hood.

Excellent Book:
This is a very tender caring book which was certainly written by a caring loving Person. It becomes a page turner. It teaches us to care for one another, forgive and share. Refreshing and confident. Wonderfully written. We need more writers like Tea.

Fun:
Gravel Queen is a fun, loving book about first love feelings. Some of it is a little over the top, in the realm of magical. While other novelslike "Keeping You a Secret" is more in depth and real, Gravel is still good.

Shallow uninteresting teen drama:
I was initially attracted to this book by vague cover and the fact that it was Tea Benduhn's debut novel. I had high hopes that this book would reveal something to me about homosexuality. It didn't. The book is about seventeen-year-old Aurin and her friends Kenny and Fred. When a new girl, Neila, comes to the tiny town of Greensborough, they decide to start hanging out with her. Aurin and Neila's friendship soon blossoms into something else. The book takes place in four places: the park, the dance studio, the restaurant, and Aurin's house. This book falls far short of revealing something new about gays and lesbians. All I learned was that girls kiss girls the same way that girls kiss guys. What's new about that? Gravel Queen falls flat most of the time, with the characters not in-depth enough to create an interesting or intriguing story. It is often difficult to see what drives them to do what little they do. Also, Ms. Benduhn's love of strange names (Aurin, Neila, Kenney, Prudence) confuses and frustrates the casual reader. Aurin and Neila's developing romance, which should be the central point of the novel, is also flat. Ms. Benduhn seems to have spent most of her time during the writing of the novel thinking up new sensations for Aurin, which often sound more like a bowel disorder than growing love. Basically, Gravel Queen is a book that could be good if (a) it had a better plot, (b) better characters, and (c) a different author! I would highly recommend avoidance of this novel.

A touching romance, a good story:
Aurin and her two friends have a nice comfortable friendship in their teen world, in Greensboro, North Carolina. When new girl Neila arrives, her liveliness and fun, are an instant attraction to Aurin. How Aurin manages to bring Neila into her life, and still keep her friendships, keeps you reading. This is a sweet, touching romance, realistic, with nice touches of humour. Author Benduhn insists this story could have happened for real, and most of it seems credible. The ending is definitely satisfying. A delightful, thoughtful novel.