You have to remember, teenagers tend to divide the world into two categories: cool and not cool. I don't care how old you get, nobody ever, ever wants to land in that second category.
Crysta had always used the guise of “having a little fun” to do her most degrading or otherwise bad things. She and Chelsea were heartbroken when Crysta’s parents decided to move back down the mountain to be closer to their jobs, and though Crysta often came back up to visit Chelsea every weekend, sometimes the girls would just stay at Crysta’s house in East Highland. She had a nice little McMansion there with a handful of bedrooms, and the neighborhood was safe to walk in.
One time when they were on one of their walks when they were about 15 years old, Crysta decided to wear a midriff top with cherries all over it, even though
They were walking and talking for a while, just shooting the shit about random boy stuff or teachers at their schools, when all of the sudden a powder-painted yellow truck pulled up beside them. The man inside was wearing a cowboy hat and a flannel shirt, he was kind of homely but he had a really nice looking beard. Naturally
“Hi CJ,” she said cutely.
“Well hey there Crys, how you ladies been?” he said, glancing at
“No CJ, we’re all right,” Crysta said. “Pick me up later though, okay?”
“You sure? It looks like a storm is heading in,” he said while pointing to the dark gray clouds overhead.
“Just pick me up at my house at like nine, okay?” and with that CJ tipped his hat and drove off.
“Who the fuck was that?”
“He lives by me,” she answered as they started walking again.
“Crysta that guy was like 25, what in the hell is he picking you up for?”
“He’s cute! Don’t you love his beard?”
“A little, but Crysta don’t get yourself into trouble,” she said as she stopped to take a picture of some bright purple and yellow plants growing on a sage covered hill in the distance, the light being quite perfect as the sun broke through the clouds to shine down on the scene.
“I just want to have a little fun, is all,” Crysta said dismissively, and that night Chelsea had her mom pick her up early instead of spending the night as she had planned. When
Bombshell is a very strong first fiction for new author Jessie Terwilliger. Marina, the main character, is a strong and interesting young woman who has had a hard life. As the story opens, Marina is having a hard time making it in the nightclub world as an exotic dancer. She wants to get out, and go into law enforcement, but she has a lot working against her. Terwilliger's dialogue is interesting and true to life, with enough "cute" to make you root for the characters, enough darkness to make the story compelling, and enough humor to make you laugh out loud.
Bombshell gives the reader an interesting inside look at nightclubs and a harsh look at the realities of working as a stripper. I'm looking forward to reading more about Marina.
Bombshell is an unforgetable story. As a busy mom, I don't have much time to read, but I made time for Bombshell! The book is so fast paced and well written, I read it in three sittings (would have done it in one, back in the pre-baby days). It is an amazing story about unlikely characters whose paths cross in a crazy way. I was super impressed with the book, for so many reasons.
First, you can tell that the author put a lot of research and time into this book. There are so many specific details that do not necessarily stand out, but they add to the depth and believability of the book. I actually found myself thinking about the book when I wasn't reading it, and in my busycrazyfull world, that is something in its own. It is described as a book about a 'topless dancer, who wants to be a cop...' but it is all that and more. I thought I might be reading about the adventures of a stripper, rather I read about the struggles of a girl that is easy to relate to. No, I've never stripped or had dreams of going into law enforcement, but I have had crazy relationships: whirlwind love that comes out of nowhere and disappears into thin air and I have always wanted better for myself.
Very cool book. I cannot talk enough about it. The various plot twists keep the reader on the edge of their seats, and the ending is something that is unforeseeable. By the end of Bombshell, you will have developed a relationship with the characters and closing the book will be bitter sweet. I can only hope there is a sequel!
Read it! You will not regret it!
Bruce is a man that I am very fond of. He's stocky and balding and his voice is gruff like the Cookie Monster. I love his story, and he said I could use it, but it's such a bittersweet tale that I cant seem to bring myself to write it. It's what happens to my fictional cop and it's harsh, oh it's harsh as all hell.
But then Bruce walks up all smiling and wearing a newsboy cap and all this green and plaid and he has a plastic green necklace and he says "Top of the morning to you," half jokingly as he throws a piece of trash into the trash barrel outside of David's bins and I wonder why I cant just get the fuck over it already and write the next part of the story.
I'm knitting less but I'm writing more. That is to say that I've got my young adult novel in the process of being rewritten from the pale and dry crap that it was and I've been taking a lot of notes in my journal. I've also decided that my journal is too hard to go back and sift through for notes so I've ordered a stack of Moleskines and I've bought an expensive pen to use in them so that each book has its own journal full of notes.
Five books you may or may not know about:
A Powdery Tattoo- young adult novel largely inspired by Victor back before he was a big fat asshole, also pertains to the weirdness that it was to be in high school just a year after Columbine. Okay for adults to read it's just that there aren't any sex scenes or heavy swear words.
Social Butterfly- Bombshell II which follows the story of another stripper who is largely based on Mustang Sally, broken English included. It's a year later so the lives of the characters from Bombshell have changed for worse or for better, plus gaps from Bombshell get filled in quite nicely. Not to mention lots and lots of cop stories.
Chelsea's Demon- Bombshell III which is 20 years in the future and follows these new characters with the aging original characters in tow...you might be able to figure out what I mean by that but I don't want to spoil Bombshell for those who haven't read it yet. The style is different but the details are pretty rich, and this is the one that's written 3/4 of the way through the story, nosing right up to the edge of this dramatic event but I cant quite push it over yet. Nobody dies, but...when you read it, you'll shit bricks.
Girls Are Pretty- Another high school story but this will not be appropriate for children. This is based on my senior year in band when we had this new teacher who sexually harassed and manipulated me and several other girls. Of course some of them liked it. It takes place in the semi fictional Mystic Lake, Ca, which is a real lake but not a real city. It's basically a big mud puddle that is now drying up because of the drought over in Moreno Valley. Regardless, there's a lot of sex and drama in this book, like teacher student sex, and somebody dies so that's good. I'm not really clear how all this is going to go yet.
The Fool on the Hill- Golden Dawn II, which is 15 years after the first book ended. Think about the word "malingerer" and decide if it makes sense to you, then go back and read Golden Dawn again. There's going to be a lot of backstory involving the Kade family, specifically one elder who was only briefly mentioned in the first novel. Oh and that whole idea behind the word "malingerer," just throw it out the window because you're probably wrong anyway. Oh yeah, and where's Dani?
These five stories in my head that are either partially on paper, only in note form, or not even really doing anything yet, but they're swirling around up there. And for some reason when I look into the beedie little eyes of a poppet I'm inspired to check out these new worlds. I cant help it, but it's true. They've somehow become an aid to my writing, sort of like how people who work in cubes have those metal balls suspended by strings that swing back and forth on their desks, and like Dilbert comics and such. So does the feel of ink on paper kind of inspire me, with these really nice journals I'm getting and my pen from the scrapbooking store, all acid free and fancy. My current journal is just in whatever ink I could find at the time some idea struck me.
And there is an extra one so that David can journal his beer recipes and paste the labels from the ones that he's tried and liked.
Bruce tells me for the third time the story about the time he sold a cobra to a guy when he was under cover, then turned the guy around and slapped the cuffs on him. And I never get tired of hearing that story.
I just need to tell my story now.
It’s not like it’s hard to get from my house to my school in the mornings, it’s a simple point A to point B bike ride. It’s hard to get lost when you only have one left turn and then a long straight line down the boulevard, I’m not saying that I can’t do it, or that I don’t do it most mornings. It’s just that if it were a job with a paycheck, the paved road beneath me with the empty fields full of dry brush and the rounded tops of Crafton Hills, the churches and parking lots would all just be a part of society that I belonged in and could relate to.
The little fast food restaurants, the drug stores, those ugly little box houses that they mowed down several hundred acres of orange trees to make room for.
But I’m 16. I don’t have a job, except that school is my job. The gas station and the car wash and all the traffic whizzing past me is all part of my path to something that I don’t particularly like to end up at when I’ve completed my regular morning journey. It’s not like it’s hard to get lost going from point A to point B, but let’s just say that I occasionally get distracted and miss first and second period to go sit and be by myself at the park.
The dry cleaner’s, the grocery store.
I have no defense, really, because I should be in school and I should be making things a little easier on Gran. How I hate upsetting Gran.
“The first time I ever saw a dead baby it was a SIDS call. I’ll tell
you, I cried for three hours straight that night when I got home. They do
everything they can to desensitize you in the academy, but it’s not all
guns and donut shops like they make it seem on TV. Then these god
damned kids, and not just the teenagers, but little 10 year olds, they’ll call
you a pig and say ‘I smell bacon’ but when a man breaks into their home
and steals their X-Box, who will they call? That stuff rolls off your back,
but it’s really thankless, Marina. And you know what? I can’t see myself
doing anything else, ever. It’s all I ever wanted to do, since I was little I
knew that this was where I belonged.”
I enjoyed this captivating read by Jessie Terwilliger. It was relateable and very interesting, especially for readers very local to the Inland Empire. Many of the landmarks mentioned are indeed real; which makes the novel very believeable, as most of us know of, or actually know children in the "system." I am anticipating the release of Jessie's next novel, with her talent and intellect, I'm sure I'll be just as entertained.
"I liked the fact that the book was partially set in a strip club, having strippers as characters, because of the novelty of it (at least for me, I think it's the first such book I've ever read). I have never thought being a stripper was the same as prostitution (nor do I now, of course), and yet the book opened my eyes in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on. I am old fashioned enough to have thought that being a stripper equals lack of morals -- right now I think being a stripper equals lack of opportunities way more (as in the book were quite a few girls, including Marina, who chose this career because they needed the money (Marina to pay her school, her friend Silver to raise her girl) and there was no other way to make them). It all of course gets down to "judge not lest ye be judged", a saying I try to live by, and parts of the book have helped me to do just that." Read the full review
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