Ah, reading this book reminds me of why sometimes it’s good to ignore the negative reviews. Because, honestly, I only requested it for the title, which I thought was absurdly awesome (as are all of Mackler’s up ’til Guyaholic, which is pretty meh). My expectations were between a rock and a hard place, shot to hell by all the low-ratings on Amazon and GoodReads.But you know what, I actually enjoyed this book. Very much so, in fact.So I went back through all the negatives to see what people were on about. Be warned this review will pretty much be an anti-thesis to most of the criticism allotted to this novel. I’ll throw in my “original” thoughts somewhere, maybe, but until then:So, Mara is a vegan (as one can probably guess from the title). She’s also a virgin. Her last name is Valentine. The mystery of the title is now resolved, and given they’re in the title, you’d think these three characteristics would play some big part in the novel. This in mind, I understand, to a certain degree, Criticism #1:The character’s knowledge of and motivation for the pursuit of veganism were nonexistent.Frankly, I don’t know that much about veganism and couldn’t care less if she followed that lifestyle out of her own, singularly-formed conscience or if, as it happened, she decided to stop eating animal byproducts because she needed a new focus after her boyfriend broke her heart. Yeah, her foundation’s misconstrued, and I wouldn’t recommend people making every life decision on rebound impulses. But again: it’s veganism we’re talking about, and as it doesn’t play a huge part in my life, I don’t feel the weight of what she did incorrectly or not. (Nor, to be blunt, do I care.) I’m sure other girls have made more serious decisions without substantial consideration.Though once more: I don’t know any vegans, I’m not a vegan, so this doesn’t hit home. If you hate books where the character is perhaps “gratuitously” vegetarian or vegan (which is to say, she isn’t so into it that she knows the rationale and animal-activism aim for every food she boycotts), perhaps this isn’t the right novel for ya.Then there’s the question of Mara’s morality. In the beginning of the novel, she’s battling to become the valedictorian, take as many college courses as she possibly can, and enter Yale (early acceptance, baby!) as a second-year student. Then she begins changing, transforming, undergoing her own sort of awakening. She begins dating a new guy—who, unlike her old boyfriend, respects her—and being with him makes her question why she’s rushing through everything.So, she ends up dropping a college course, not really caring about schoolwork anymore, and subsequently dropping out of a prestigious summer program to further advance her college credits. She begins thinking about the path she’s on and changing this according to what she sees fit. Yes, this means she’s swayed by the desire to stay with New Guy until the end of summer (thus why she dropped the summer program). But she struggles with all those decisions, questions herself and what her life’s been so far, and you know what? That’s pretty damn admirable. Whether she’s losing her morality or not, I choose not to judge because I believed Mara was doing what she felt correlated more with what she wanted, too.Vegan Virgin Valentine? Good book, as far as I’m concerned. Examining oneself—taking a good look in the mirror—once in a while and asking, “Why?” is never, ever a bad thing. In contrast, I think beginning-of-the-novel Mara was narrow-minded and intolerant. Toward the end, I thought she became more mature and compassionate.DID I MENTION HOW PROUD I WAS THAT SHE FINALLY CAME TO TERMS WITH WHAT SHE WANTED AND TOOK CONTROL OF HER LIFE?Despite everything, she’ll still be attending Yale with excellent transcripts in the fall. Which goes to show you for her morality. Let the girl have a little fun in the meantime for god’s sake.When all is said and done, I acknowledge people will always find something to nitpick, me most of all. They expected more out of the story, out of the ending, out of Mara. They’ll be judging her morality. (Which I’ll be guilty of doing in a couple of days, with another book. Hah, hypocrisy. Case-by-case basis, grasshopper.) I hope, however, that this review outlined what happens and my perspective on it, and above all, I hope someone, somewhere, understands what I’m saying. The writing was good; the character development was good for what was required of the novel; the self-discovery part was one I related to immensely, especially when Mara realized grades are very rarely the meter of someone’s intelligence, capability or potential.What I’m saying is: I thought it was awesome. It’s not for everybody (evidently), but presented to the right set of eyes, this book is quite scrumptiously good. (And funny!)
Mara Valentine is a straight A student, vegan and thinks she has everything all planned out. Unexpectedly her niece V, which is the same age as her, is moving in and transferring to Mara’s high school throwing things all out of place. Mara discovers more about herself than she has in her entire life, experiencing love and freedom for the first time. This book is very relatable to any teenager experiencing difficult and confusing times. The plot is interesting and keeps you on your toes. Full of secrets, love and rebellious attitudes. What I personally enjoyed was the clash between Mara and her out of control niece V, their relationship is definitely one of a kind. The love story that is brewing was an unexpected but nice surprise, making Mara’s true self finally come out. Some of the things I would change about the book are the story of V, showing more of her and her background, it would make the story a little more interesting and fun. Also the ending seemed a bit brief and blunt, maybe a more complex ending, showing more into the future would really complete this story. “Once those words were out of my mouth, I realized that I was willing to cross that line” (page 136). This line from the book stood out to me because it showed the tone shift and new attitude of Mara. She almost has an enlightened phase, going completely opposite from what she was before, opening her eyes, taking her head out of books and school, experiencing life.
Do You like book Vegan, Virgin, Valentine (2006)?
It started off okay. I knew what I was getting into what I started it—a typical coming-of-age story that has some of the usual cliches about high school and growing up.But I found the main character annoying. She has a complete “change in character” towards the end, but I have no idea why…other than the fact that she just can. Which didn’t at all fit the book or the character. I honestly didn’t see any reason for it.Along with that, the romance in it felt completely forced. She says early on that this guy is just a friend, and she doesn’t see him as anything more than that, but he starts to show feelings for her and suddenly she loves him too.So, I didn’t have high expectations from the start, but I still got even less than what I was expecting. I found the book to be more frustrating and annoying than enjoyable.
—Randi Muilenburg
Mara is a strict vegan. She's taking college classes, she has early acceptance to Yale and she's a virgin. Mara thinks her life is going just fine, until her niece V, who is only a year younger than her, moves in and everything changes. V is Mara's total opposite. She's loud, she's rude and having a good time is number one on her priority list. Mara doesn't know how to handle her, and lately she's having trouble concentrating on anything at all. She keeps dreaming about grilled cheese sandwiches, and other things that are off limits. But with the fight to become Valedictorian and to achieve the highest GPA in the school, Mara doesn't have time to sort out her problems. What's a girl to do?I started reading Vegan Virgin Valentine knowing nothing about it at all. I didn't read any reviews for it, so I had no idea what to expect. I ended up liking it quite a lot. Mara was a character I could relate to; it was easy to understand why she was so stressed out, and I could see that she was struggling to juggle all her classes and extra-curricular activities, as well as the difficulties she was experiencing to stay vegan. I liked how Mara wasn't perfect; she broke out in spots occassionally and said stupid things sometimes, just like other teenagers, and all of this made it feel more realistic and believeable to me. I liked the way she was so determined, and how this was both one of her strengths and weaknesses - her determination meant that she felt she always needed to be in control, something that she found progressively harder with each day.I liked the way V and Mara's friendship developed; they started off as almost-enemies and ended up actually caring about each other. I thought V balanced Mara out a bit, and they were both quite funny characters with their own quirks and flaws. V seemed quite tough on the outside, but was really actually quite understanding underneath. Though I liked James' character, I wanted to know more about him. He was very sweet and charming, but I felt like I didn't know much about his character except he was twenty-two and owned a coffee shop. I also felt the same way with his relationship with Mara; I wanted to know why they both liked each other and what made them want to be together. I also thought that Claudia's character could have been explored a little more, though I did like her and thought she was pretty fun.Another thing I enjoyed was the relationship between Mara and her parents, and how Mara started off not minding all the phone calls and check-ups and ended up bursting out a bunch of secrets she'd been keeping. Mara felt like her parents only had her to make up for her older sister's failures, so I thought it was funny when Mara's mother had a chat with her about this, because it was something Mara really didn't expect. I thought that perhaps her parents would have been a little more shocked by her outburst, but I'm glad that everything worked out in the end. As for Aimee, V's mother and Mara's sister, I definitely understood why V sometimes resented her, and I was pleased that V got to do something she enjoyed for a change.In conclusion, Vegan Virgin Valentine was a quick (could've been longer in my opinion - I wanted to know more!) and entertaining read and I'm very happy I read it. Recommended.
—Liz
In Vegan Virgin Valentine, Mara Valentine has a somewhat perfect life. She's an honors student, going to Yale, a perfect daughter and planning on entering Yale as a second year student. But then comes her niece Vivienne Vail Valentine or V and she comes and changes her life. At first Mara hates V for fooling around with her ex-boyfriend Travis Hart, smoking behind her parents back and giving herself a bad reputation at school. But as the book goes on you can see how V changes Mara's life also for the better. Mara realizes she doesn't have to be this perfect daughter. As Mara starts lying to her parents and taking risks like dating her boss James who is 22 and not really the type of guy she'd usually date or deciding to drop a class. As things change with Mara, V starts changing for the better too. V is now living up to her potential. She's now into school activities like musicals which she's the star in and getting her grades up by SAT classes. V and Mara have changed their lives for the better and have even become closer. I really liked this book and I actually think Im most like Mara. Im constantly trying to impress my parents and make them proud. I think I've learned a lot from this book.
—Karina Perales
