Simon was awful! (Cassandra, too)

[readingrainbow]

Why did he kiss Cassandra? If he was soooo in luuurrrvvee with Rose, why did he kiss the kid sister? Ugh.

And Cassandra kissing Stephen, whilst pretending to herself it was Simon. Blah.

It's a well written story, but transpose these characters into a Mumsnet thread and they don't come off very well, do they?!

Oh, but they're so young! And when you're a teenager or young adult, and all those hormones and emotions are washing around inside you, you sometimes don't know what you really want (and sometimes you want things you don't really want too). That's where I think book is so compelling, Cassandra's account of her painful - and to me, at least, painfully recognisable - longings that she isn't in control of. Did you never kiss someone you didn't love as a substitute for the one you did love?

Her painful longings, yes, I get that. But Simon - how old was he?

Not very old, I don't think. From Cassandra's point of view, of course, he's much older, but in reality he's somewhere in his early twenties, I think. Still young enough to make mistakes. Also, it's clear that he stops kissing her quite quickly, and then never does it again. He doesn't go any further than a kiss.

And don't forget, too, that it's a book that is essentially about the fantasy lives of teenage girls. I can certainly remember at that age building castles in Spain - no, whole cities in Spain - on the back of one kiss .