Reviewed by Safia Abdul for TeensReadToo.com

Polly is a tough but also very vulnerable girl. Beginning from middle school and through college, Polly's got a string of boyfriends--a variety of punks and drunks. And she's got a story to tell about each one of them--from Tommy to Todd.

With an acid-tripping high school dropout, she experiences her first heartbreak. Later, while in love with an older red-head, she gets cheated on with not one, but two other girls. In college, she loses her virginity with a DJ and then later dumps him. Moving on, she's later raped at a party during spring break. Rejected, hurt, confused, humiliated, or dumped, Polly remains true and spunky to the end.

Author Amy Bryant's debut novel about a teenage girl living in the suburbs of the 1980s is strong, honest, and at times easy to relate to. Pick up a copy of POLLY and enter into her world of punk music, drugs, and hooking up with guys.

Recommended for girls who know what it is like to be misunderstood! ( )

I really liked the first few boyfriends/stories, but I feel like they got less exciting/descriptive as the novel wore on...I did love the narrator's voice and the settings ( )

Bit of a disappointment. I loved the concept but the writing itself was so superficial -- I heard a lot about what happened to Polly, but it was all a little affectless, as if the author was afraid to really explore the emotions and relationships in the book. Polly was supposed to be obsessed with music, but I never really felt her engagement with the bands she loved. We got album titles and show dates, but where was the sense of passion, the sense of finding meaning and beauty in something bigger than yourself? ( )

Polly is a good book that doesn't succeed in being great. I enjoyed it, but there was something missing about it. Perhaps because the book takes place in such a wide span and it jumps from one era of Polly's young womanhood to another without much closure. There is continuity in the chapters, which each feature a different boyfriend as a name, but I felt these moments were too fleeting. This book was read in the course of two days. I thought it was one of the better books I've read recently, I just wish it had been longer! ( )

http://talesofarampaginglibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/05/fresh-pangs-of-rejection.... ( )