Publisher: Razorbill
Publish Date: May 17, 2007
ISBN: 978-1595141552
Pages: 370
The Bermudez Triangle is about friendship, acceptance, sexuality, coming out and more. But mostly friendship...and love.
The Bermudez Triangle is made up of three girls that have been friends since elementary. They're called that as there are three of them and one of the girls has the last name Bermudez. Silly, eh?
Nina, Mel and Avery are in the summer before Senior year of high school. Nina is attending a summer program at Stanford while Avery and Mel are waitressing at a local restaurant. By the time Nina returns for Senior year, things have changed. Nina met a guy named Steve who was in her program at Stanford. He's an ecowarrior and she can't wait to go to Stanford next fall to be with him. Mel and Avery's friendship has turned into something a bit more following a tipsy kiss.
Nina - I knew girls like her in high school, in fact, I still know women like her now. :) She's totally focused, involved in everything but not having all that much fun. Everything is labeled and categorized and perfect.
Avery - I felt like Avery just wants to figure out who she is and she's having trouble doing it. She cut off her hair, plays classical and rock music and took up smoking because no one likes it.
Mel - tiny, cute, dainty, great hair, sweet, loving, boys fall in love with her on sight, but can be clingy and suffocating.
Parker - new friend of Avery and Mel, works at the restaurant, sweet and nice. Wonders why girls like jerky guys.
I think that the characters handle the homosexuality issue very well. Some get panicked, freaked out, supportive, mean - just like in real life.
Steve and Nina's relationship? Yep, had that happen before. It's pretty common, although I think that Nina probably handled it nicer than I did in high school and college!
Parker is just a nice guy, a good friend, who seems to like all three of the girls at different points. He's definitely a romantic interest...but for who?
I think that the situations are very real and it's a great story about friendship, different kinds of love and coming out.
Glad you enjoyed this! We have only read 1.5 Maureen Johnson books, and the one we read the whole thing of (13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES) felt very young and unrealistic, so we're glad that this sounds more believable and mature. Perhaps we'll have to try this next. (We really want to like Maureen's books, because she's fantastic on Twitter, and a YA "warrior" of sorts. So smart and funny.)
ReplyDeleteI never read 13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES, I just didn't think it sounded that good. My sister actually sent a couple boxes of books and this one was in it. If she sends them to me, I know they have to be worth reading. :)
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