Book Review | Golden | Jessi Kirby

Title: Golden
Author: Jessi Kirby (web | twitter)
Genre: Contemporary YA
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Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR
Release date: May 14, 2013
Source: Own it

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost has never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential good girl, she’s about to graduate high school without ever having kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a clue in her lap—one that might be the key to unraveling a town mystery—she decides to take a chance.

Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz are remembered as the golden couple of Summit Lakes High—perfect in every way, meant to be together forever. But Julianna’s journal tells a different story—one of doubts about Shane and a forbidden romance with an older, artistic guy. These are the secrets that were swept away with her the night that Shane’s jeep plunged into an icy river, leaving behind a grieving town and no bodies to bury.

Reading Julianna’s journal gives Parker the courage to start to really live—and it also gives her reasons to question what really happened the night of the accident. Armed with clues from the past, Parker enlists the help of her best friend, Kat, and Trevor, her longtime crush, to track down some leads. The mystery ends up taking Parker places that she never could have imagined. And she soon finds that taking the road less traveled makes all the difference.

Jessi Kirby is as solid a go-to for good contemporaries as any author around. I’ve enjoyed each of her books quite a bit, but GOLDEN might be my favorite. There are two stories being told in GOLDEN and they were both memorable in their own ways, and they didn’t compete or clash. Jessi Kirby‘s characters are well-rounded and awesome, too. So many blogger friends have read and raved about GOLDEN and I honestly couldn’t disagree with them even a teensy bit. It’s really, really good.

The story of GOLDEN is about a Parker Frost, a descendent of the poet, Robert Frost. She’s a straight A student, top of her class, gunning for a major scholarship. Her parents are divorced and her mom is anal and uber-controlling, to put it mildly. She’s also judgy, and practically demands that Parker stay on the straight and narrow. Which she usually does. Parker is an over-achiever. In that vein, she’s spending her last couple month at school serving as a TA for a teacher who gives all of his seniors a journal to write in, which he then saves and mails to them 10 years down the road. Parker’s job is to locate this year’s batch of journal owners and mail them off. Of course, one of the journals belongs to Julianna Farnetti, the town golden girl who disappeared one night 10 years ago with her golden-boy boyfriend and is presumed dead. In a rare show of rebellion, Parker reads Julianna’s journal and unearths all kinds of secrets. Oh, and of course, there’s a boy, Trevor. He’s charming. Parker’s had a crush on him for aaaaaaages. And there’s a best friend, too, who is always urging Parker to branch out and take risks. She’s quite excellent as well.

It’s hard to like a book as much as I liked GOLDEN without liking the main character, and Parker is easy to like. She’s also easy to root for and mentally encourage to break the rules and live a little bit. Her parents’ divorce wasn’t pleasant and her father–a poet who seems to be that loosey-goosey artist type–is the constant object of her mother’s–a hardworking, type A, perfectionist–derision. Any hint of Parker acting like her dad gives her mom hives. Needless to say, Parker has some very lofty expectations to live up to, and I was glad that Jessi Kirby gave her an outlet. Gave her some room to NOT follow her mom’s rules to the letter.

Guiding Parker on this road to rule-breaker-dom is her best friend, Kat. To be honest, I’m surprised that Parker’s mom even lets them hang out, what with the former’s SUPER judgyness when it comes to people who don’t live on her side of the tracks. Kat is a knockout who likes kissing boys and doing whatever she feels like doing. She’s an EXCELLENT friend because she respects Parker’s studiousness and her rules, even as she always makes it her mission to get Parker to loosen up. When Parker gets it in her head from reading Julianna’s journal that MAYBE Julianna didn’t die 10 years ago, Kat supports her friend. Their friendship isn’t without some bumps, but it’s strong. Me likey.

Speaking of Julianna, I really liked the sub-story that we get from her journal entries in GOLDEN. Like, A LOT. The mystery surrounding her death one snowy night when her boyfriend’s car drove off a cliff into a river was pretty intriguing. It wasn’t hard to puzzle some things out, and I wasn’t surprised at the way things turned out, but still. Getting into Julianna’s head and reading about the last few months of her senior year and the ways in which she and her boyfriend changed was so real. Julianna had such an itch to leave town and do things OTHER than what people expected of her, which is the same kind of thing Parker is dealing with. It was a great juxtaposition.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Jessi Kirby book without a boy, and GOLDEN has a good one, Trevor. He’s an ace flirt, and it’s mostly clear that he has a thing for Parker, and she for him, but for whatever reason, she resists it. Mostly. He’s supportive and flirty and they have a great connection, but to me GOLDEN is about much more than Parker and Trevor being together. It’s about Parker breaking her mother’s rules, deciding what she wants for herself, and discovering the truth about Julianna Farnetti. He’s a GREAT bonus, though.

Jessi Kirby‘s books never fail to entertain me. They always have great characters with emotions and romance and drama–reading her books is time well spent. GOLDEN is a thoroughly enjoyable story about making your own path and taking risks and owning your future. Parker is a great character, and the mystery element is good. Not surprising, but good. Fans of Jessi Kirby‘s first two books, MOONGLASS and IN HONOR will certainly love GOLDEN, but it’s a perfect place to start if she’s a new author to you.

Check out some other reviews of Golden by Jessi Kirby!

Judith @ Paper Riot: “Golden by Jessi Kirby reminded me of why I love reading.”

Angie @ Disquietus: “Golden is a story about change, choices, taking chances, one of those magnificent coming-of-age stories that will mean something different to everyone who picks it up.”

Asheley @ Into the Hall of Books: “Golden by Jessi Kirby was like the warm, Southern sunshine in the springtime. “