Review: One-Hundred Percent Delightful
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 18, 2013
Joe's father committed suicide.  His mother was confined to a mental institution for delusions of seeing spaceships and aliens.  His grandmother received custody of Joe and his older brother.  So far Joe has been unsuccessful at making it produce an income.  It is owned by the two brothers.Only in his middle teens, these worries are too much for the young man.  He intends to sell the farm.But when the offer comes, he hesitates.  On his way back from town one evening, all these thoughts weighing heavily on his mind, he comes across a young woman who jumps off a rock into the lake, obviously intending to drown herself.  Joe, who has worked as a lifeguard, jumps in to rescue her, and so begins his unexpected journey with the young woman, who is a human-alien hybrid.  It seems his mother hadn't been imagining things after all.Suzanna Williams has written a delightful young adult story.  She grows the relationship between these two people in a tender and sensitive way, all through their insecurities and their innocent young love (which never gets beyond kissing).  It's a refreshing approach to teenage emotions.Being both a lover of science fiction as well as young adult fiction, I was completely enthralled.  The characters are as real as my own children, and as insecure as I was as a teen.  I loved it.