| Title | : | Without Annette |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0545819954 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780545819954 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 |
| Publication | : | First published May 31, 2016 |
Josie Little has been looking forward to moving halfway across the country to attend Brookwood Academy, a prestigious boarding school, with her girlfriend, Annette, for ages. But underneath Brookwood's picture-perfect image lies a crippling sense of elitism that begins to tear the girls apart from the moment they arrive.
While Josie struggles to navigate her new life, Annette seems to fit in perfectly. Yet that acceptance comes with more than a few strings. And consequently, Annette insists on keeping their relationship a secret.
At first, Josie agrees. But as Annette pushes her further and further away, Josie grows closer to Penn, a boy whose friendship and romantic feelings for her tangle her already-unraveling relationship. When Annette's need for approval sets her on a devastating course for self-destruction, Josie isn't sure she can save her this time -- or if Annette even wants her to try.
Without Annette Reviews
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Eh. I love a boarding school novel and was inclined to be generous to this one because of that, but it just underwhelmed. There was too much going on and none of it was given enough time to develop. So many possibly great supporting characters who crowded the page so that none of them could really be seen.
The relationship between Josie and Annette didn't feel like it had any depth, but was more based on convenience and familiarity than any deep feelings. I kept thinking that one or both of them would hook up with someone else--girl, boy, whatever--and realize that what J&A had wasn't love, but that it was what they needed at the time and they would always be friends but this new relationship was the real thing. You know, like happens in almost every other YA novel ever. And, honestly, neither of them ever really struck me as lesbians. There was no indication that either of them ever found another girl--or anyone, for that matter--attractive. This impression just reinforced to me that they became physically intimate because they were best friends who cared about each other very deeply and that was the only way they could become even closer.
The whole plot with the tunnels and the shrunken head seemed tossed in because the author thought the book needed some intrigue or something. It actually probably could have been interesting, but it needed more pages and more development. Honestly, I think the whole book could have benefited from at least fifty more pages to develop story and characters. Marina was noticed by Josie for being different from the other Soleets, but we never got to know much about her. Who was Mannerling, other than a sociology teacher, and why was he fired? When did Josie and Roxanne become besties and what was the fallout from the discovery of who Roxanne's dad was? So much was introduced and just left hanging and it made the whole book feel incomplete and, therefore, vaguely disappointing. -
Oh this book was so aching in the best kind of way. When Josie goes off to boarding school with her girlfriend, Annette, everything is supposed to be perfect. They'll escape their small Minnesota town, and more importantly, Annette's alcoholic mother. But boarding school is not only far, but an opportunity to reinvent yourself and when Annette starts to want to be herself, away from Josie, their long-term relationship is threatened.
I loved the lore and microcosm of a boarding school setting. The feeling of being in a fish bowl when your life is challenged on every primal level. This story made my heart hurt, but then become resigned, even though I hung onto hope with each turn of the page. A wonderful, unfolding story about love, finding yourself, and ultimately, letting go of what you know is true. -
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even though it was intended for a much younger audience. The story took me back to my high school/college years, in both pleasant and painful ways. But the universal themes of love, friendship, loyalty, and finding one's own path in the world should resonate with about anyone.
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this book is so hard to review simply because i'm not entirely sure what it was trying to achieve. was it trying to be a coming of age story, a story about the hardships of relationships or a mystery? i honestly don't know. it felt like i was reading three stories which were put in one just because the author didn't know how to focus on one and develop it properly.
don't get me wrong, i think that tackling a number of themes and topics in a novel is manageable and can be done right. but this story is not the case! i don't think that the author is to blame for that happening. this novel would have worked for me personally if we just followed the relationship of josie and annette without the mystery element.
and i agree with some of the reviews. penn's crush on josie was completely pointless and useless. why did the author decide to include this storyline? it has absolutely no relevance to the plot and is just annoying
i love boarding school stories, but this one fell flat a little tbh -
This book was weird, seeming to head in two different directions that completely contradicted each other. It was part boarding school mystery (that reminded me a bit of The Secret History) and part relationship drama, and I feel like the boarding school mystery outshone Josie's struggle with Annette. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting from this book.
I think one of the biggest problems was that Annette wasn't a developed character and their relationship wasn't fleshed out either. I love girl/girl relationships, but this one wasn't well-written and mildly disappointing. I'm also kind of disappointing about how the subplot with Penn ties in to their relationship as well, because it's made clear that Josie is gay and Penn will never be a romantic interest, yet so much drama focused on their relationship. I think it would have been much better if Penn had never had romantic feelings for Josie, because it was entirely unnecessary.
I did like Penn himself, and the boys. All of the girls except for Roxanne were presented as shallow, which was disappointing. And wish the book had been focused more on the mystery, because that was intriguing, and I didn't get what I wanted out of that. The mystery was definitely one of the strongest parts of the book and I feel like a lot of that was glossed over in favor of the Penn/Josie subplot. -
I was lucky enough to snag an advanced copy of "Without Annette," and I finished it in three short days. "Without Annette" tells the story of two girls, best friends, from small-town Minnesota who move to Connecticut for boarding school. But they're not just best friends, they're girlfriends. Josie and Annette are trying to escape the suffocation that is being lesbians in a small town as well as Annette's alcoholic, abusive mother. When they get to Brookwood Academy, though, nothing goes as planned. Annette becomes more entrenched in a group referred to as the "Soleets" (social elites), refusing to be out, and Josie can feel her slipping away. Meanwhile, Josie's only friend is her roommate Roxanne, at least until she finds herself entwined with the boy equivalent to the Soleets, playing poker and exploring the steam tunnels. At some point, everything falls completely apart. In fact, it's probably been falling apart all along.
Ultimately, "Without Annette" is about one girl's attempt to realize who she is when no longer defined by anyone else. Jane B. Mason's debut YA novel is a painfully honest portrayal of boarding school life, even if at times it seems outlandish. As the graduate of a small, prestigious Southern boarding school, I can attest to the fact that in the face of a great deal of academic pressure students will find any outlet of relief they can. "Without Annette" also does an excellent job of exploring relationships, lesbian, romantic and otherwise, and how many of us rely on things that were never really there while failing to see just how much support we have. Mason's writing is poignant, if at times a little repetitive. Given my version is an uncorrected copy, though, that is to be expected. I am grateful for a YA book that tells an honest, raw story of a teen lesbian relationship and imagine this will be a cherished book among many teenagers who are struggling to figure out who they are and what they deserve. -
3.5 stars. I'm somewhat torn on this one. It starts a bit slow and cliched: two best friends go to boarding school--one fits in, one doesn't--and they start to grow apart. This story has the added element that Annette and Josie are also romantically involved, though they are keeping it a secret at their new school. None of the characters are particularly well-developed--I found my self wanting more information and explanation throughout the book.
That being said, there are some surprisingly emotional and touching moments, particularly in the last half of the book. Growing apart from people you love can be hard, and I felt Josie's confusion and pain. I love her roommate Roxanne and the quirky-but-confused Penn...but, as I said before, I wanted more from a character stand point.
Overall an enjoyable story with a girl-girl relationship--something that is still quite rare in YA these days. -
I sort of suspect that I liked this one more than it deserved, but hey, I've never claimed impartiality. Throw queer characters in a boarding school with some decent writing and I'll be super happy.
Here's what I loved: Josie's agency and sense of self. She's not always confident, but she knows who she is and isn't really interested in changing that. She knows she loves her girlfriend. A boy kisses her, and it doesn't turn into some complicated love triangle or question about her sexuality: she knows perfectly well (as does he) that he should have left well enough, and their friendship, alone. There are multiple sub-plots, so the book never feels as though it's relying solely on romance. Some of the side characters (Roxanne, Marina) have great potential.
Here's what I didn't love: There's too much going on, and so much of it is rushed through or unresolved. The shrunken head, the professor who is randomly (and seemingly for no reason) fired... We get hints that Marina is an interesting character, one worth Josie's time, but that's never developed; Roxanne has a Big Reveal near the end that does nothing but eat up a couple of pages that could have been put to better use; not only is it unclear why Annette is deteriorating so badly, but we don't get to know Annette well enough before she starts to pull away from Josie, which makes it much harder to care about her. Also, although I know this is inconsequential and nitpicky, I didn't love that a class can apparently start at 7:45 (p. 48), still have 31 minutes to go as of 8:19 (p. 50), and yet somehow only last 45 minutes in total (p. 50).
Here's what I absolutely hated: When Penn says this: "You're smart and outspoken and funny and beautiful. Only you don't even know you're beautiful, which not only makes you more beautiful but different from practically every other girl in this place, maybe every other girl, period." (198) NOPE. Nope nope nope. What's that awful teen pop song that's all about how the girl's beautiful because she doesn't know she's beautiful? Well, I hate that song, too. I can't hear it as anything but I like you because you're insecure. Fortunately this line of reasoning doesn't win Penn a whole lot of points (Josie is, after all, not actually interested in him in the first place), but ugh.
And yet it managed to be a book that I really enjoyed. Boarding school! With queers characters! Really, sometimes I'm very easy to please. -
Best friends--and more--Josie Little and Annette Anderson have left their small Minnesota hometown far behind for a boarding school in Connecticut. Brookwood Academy is nothing like the schools back home, and Josie prepares to revel in the freedom and the challenges the school has to offer. After all, classes are sure to provide more intellectual stimulation, and she and Annette will be able to be open about their feelings toward each other. Then too, she is pleased to have removed her friend from the clutches of her abusive, controlling mother. But right from the start, things don't go as they've planned. Josie is assigned to another roommate, Roxanne, who seems disinterested in getting to know her, and Annette is taken under the wing of a set of popular girls and seems to have little free time for Josie. As Josie watches her friend behave in ways that shock her, including starving herself and purging the food she consumes, she finds surprising allies in Josie and in Penn McCarthy, a classmate who has a crush on her and opens up access to some of the school's secrets, hidden underground and in plain sight. Even while the love between Josie and Annette dies, Josie realizes that she is much stronger than she has given herself credit for being and that she can embrace this new experience even with its flaws. As she concludes, "Not because I was trapped in the petri dish, but because I had decided that right here was where I wanted to be...even unbelievably, without Annette" (p. 325). Interestingly, once again, a well-written book reminds readers that no matter how far away we might flee, we still take ourselves with us when we go, and we must ultimately face the problems we thought we had left behind. They often come right along with us. While Brookwood isn't depicted in the most positive light, still, Josie will use her experiences there to grow. Sure to prompt reflection and discussion about the many issues it raises, this is an excellent YA debut for an up-and-coming author.
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Grade: F
One Word: dreadful
Who doesn't like a good boarding school book? Key word GOOD.
The best thing I can say about WITHOUT ANNETTE is that the writing wasn't terrible, meaning I didn't stop multiple times to wonder why an editor let such a poorly written sentence/chapter/book go to publication. Jane B Mason started with an interesting premise, lesbian girlfriends accepted at the same boarding school, far from their podunk town in Minnesota, hoping to have the freedom to be out and share a room. <---I'm sure boarding schools all over the world would accommodate same sex couples as roommates. -
I read this FOR WORK and learned I can't even enjoy a teen novel about teenage lesbians.
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I was very happy to find this book just when I needed it. So many YA novels about lesbian relationships focus on external conflict, not on internal conflict within the relationship. Just the fact that Without Annette exists is so important to me. Stories about messy, flawed, dysfunctional relationships between women are important to me.
Of course, this book isn't perfect. The biggest surprise to me was how little this book is actually about Annette and Josie. As their relationship deteriorates, they drift apart and become busy with different things - but sometimes pages and pages go by without mention of Annette. Maybe this is realistic for some people, but I was surprised that Josie was so easily distracted from her relationship troubles.
Josie is an unusually bold heroine; her tree-climbing, tunnel-exploring adventures are more interesting than typical boarding school antics. But there are still the cliches: the clique of rich mean girls that Annette befriends; the edgy new roommate who first snubs Josie, then shows her the merits of being an outsider; the sheer number of people who approach Josie to provide expository information or to offer friendship; the old legends about the school that just might be true. I could have done with a little less of this unrealistic boarding school drama and a little more relationship angst, to be honest.
Some of the most unwelcome drama originates with Penn. I think Penn was totally unnecessary in this story; time spent on his boy drama could have been better spent by exploring Annette and Josie's relationship more deeply.
Their relationship is complex, but I wish it had been the true focus of the story. During the first half of the book, Josie periodically has flashbacks to important moments in her relationship with Annette. These sequences are gems. They give the reader so much insight into both characters. This is what I read Without Annette for: the unsolvable dysfunction; the heartbreaking then-and-now. -
I really loved this book...except for the fact that they had a lesbian messing around with a guy. I realize this happens in real life, but I feel like every book written on LGBT persons (lesbians to be exact) always makes a turn where a "lesbian" messes around with a guy. This, in my opinion, furthers the misconception that lesbians can be "turned" straight. Why couldn't they have her cheating with a woman? Honestly, I would have liked the book a lot better if it turned out that Annette was cheating with Marina. It also would explain why Marina didn't tell anyone about the kiss she witnessed. I'm just sick of media (such as books, movies, and television shows) invalidating the personal identification of "lesbian".
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This is a well-constructed, moving, emotional story of what happens when love tries to control destiny, especially when you are still a teen trying to find yourself.
Josie is convinced that she can save her girlfriend Annette. The key is getting away.
This poignant tale is full 0f well-rounded characters, rich (pun intended) description, with enough mystery, romance, teen angst, and social conflict to add fun, depth and tears.
I agree with David Leviathan, you had to write this, Jane. And I'm glad you did!! -
Very sad to have finished this but extremely happy to have read it.
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This book was ok. I liked the main character a lot, but I didn’t feel like I got what the resolution was at the end. I felt a few unanswered questions still lingered. I liked the boarding school setting.
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This took a while to get into since I was initially kind of frustrated by the main character but I grew to really like her, especially using her school classes and experiences as a catalyst for that growth.
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It was a cute read! A little bit rushed with a few different areas trying to be covered but overall, it was sweet and thoughtfully written.
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Perfectly average. I annoyed the represention and it’s a quick and easy summer read.
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If the book has lesbians, you know there isn’t a happy ending. I wished more from this book and it took alot of weird turns.
Still enjoyable summer read! -
See more of my reviews on
The YA Kitten! My copy was a hardcover I got from the publisher as a staff reviewer for
YA Books Central.*Annette and Josie are lesbians and so is an adult in the book
*Annette’s mom is a literal raging alcoholic
Remember a while back when Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy inspired fury from readers who thought it would engage in bi erasure or lesbian erasure based on its original jacket copy? Yeah, me too, but I stayed out of it. From the sound of reviews, the book was actually very good and didn’t commit either crime in a story about a girl questioning her sexual identity. While reading Without Annette, I described it as “Ramona Blue in boarding school” and kinda regret it because that’s not the case at all. Oops? Still a good book, though.
It’s honestly easier to begin with what readers won’t get from Without Annette so they can adjust their expectations. If they want a happy ending for Annette and Josie and/or a bisexual narrator, they aren’t going to find what they’re looking for. I’d even say the book is as sad as the cover looks: pretty darn sad. Without Annette is focused on the sad reality of how two people in a relationship can grow apart from one another, especially when surrounded by new people in a new place.
Josie is entirely comfortable in her identity as a lesbian girl, which is nice even in a book that’s about the slow, unstoppable decay of her relationship with her first love/best friend Annette. Though her friend Penn’s confession of feelings for her shake Josie up a bit, is entirely certain of her identity. If you’ve ever been confessed to by someone whose gender you aren’t attracted to, you’ll relate to Josie!
But there’s still so much more the book is about! Ultimately, it’s about how Josie grows–wait for it–without Annette as well as the friendships she makes at her fancy new boarding school with people like her roommate Roxanne, Penn, and some of Penn’s other guy friends. Coming from a small Minnesota town where she and Annette were pretty much the only queer girls, so much of her life has been tied to Annette that Josie is bereft of her sense of self once Annette drifts toward a group of popular girls and decides she and Josie have to hide their relationship.
So yes, Josie grows into a new person–and so does Annette as she enters a downward spiral that sees her drink to excess just like her abusive mother and become bulimic. If seeing Josie rise up as Annette falls isn’t enough to make you sad, dorm mother hen Lola No comforting Josie toward the end of the book is sure to make you cry.
Without Annette is a strong novel on its own merits, but it might have been further strengthened if made a dual POV book split by Josie and Annette. Annette’s head is an impenetrable place from Josie’s point of view. To see Annette’s downward spiral and experience her complicated feelings for Josie from her own point of view might have turned this heart-wrenching book into one that actually tore your heart from your chest.
Additionally, more page time and development for Annette, Becca, and their group of Soleets (essentially the popular crowd) was necessary. One character named Marina offers tantalizing tidbits about her difficult life situation, but we get more about her life than we get of her. If it meant getting more complex characters, I’d happily sacrifice the book’s mystery subplot regarding a shrunken head and a dead kid from decades ago!
Without Annette takes a boatload of difficult emotions and makes them easily digestible. Though set in a boarding school for high school students, teens soon to start or newly in college away from home will also relate to Josie’s struggle to define herself. Having a book like this my freshman year of college could have done so much to help me settle in and change my experience! -
Dawson's Creek Jack and Jen style... This book felt very average to me ... very predictable. Two girls go to boarding school to "get away from their families." They also get away so that they can be together - one problem, Annette thought this was a good idea until she got to school and felt weird about PDA with Josie. Lots happen - buddy making out with Annette and then kissing on Josie - again like I said it's Dawson's Creek. Josie's roommate Roxanne shows her how to deal with her tough life by giving her Vodka and Altoids. (Introduce Jen/Abby). The author tries to add in some mystery by having all the students try to find some shrunken head - but literally no one cares because we all know how its going to end. Seriously, I predicted the entire ending after reading 4 chapters. Grades 10+ for intimate situations and drinking. Optional Purchase.
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summary: sixteen(?)-year-old Josie Little is set to embark on a great new adventure with her girlfriend, Annette. they're heading off to a fancy live-in high school in Connecticut, far away from their lives in rural Minnesota. Josie thinks Brookwood will be the perfect escape for Annette, safe from her abusive alcoholic mother. instead, Annette and Josie quickly drift apart, as Annette aligns herself with the "soleets" (social elites), hiding her relationship with Josie, and Josie finds herself in the middle of a 50-year-old mystery hidden in the tunnels under the school.
I tore through this book in a day, only putting it down to buy groceries. it's a rollicking adventure, hard to put down. everything happens at high speed at an intense boarding school where students study, drink and live together. it was good to read a lesbian ya novel not about coming out — Josie and Annette have been together since age 12(!) and their coming out is years behind them — but the ambiguous end was disappointing, particularly in light of the author having a husband.
I still enjoyed the story thoroughly, and it was refreshing to read a different spin on the traditional high-school ya novel. we need more books about girls climbing trees, beating boys at poker, exploring underground tunnels without permission. -
I was initially interested in this one because of the LGBTQ aspect. It's a novel about two teen girls dating, but essentially in the closet, in a small mid-Western town. When an opportunity arises to apply to a prestigious boarding school in the Northeast the girls see it as a way to escape their small town and all the problems they see as coming with it. Quite unsurprisingly, the girls find out relatively quickly that, although some of the problems were endemic to their hometown, variations of them came along on the journey. Boarding school turns out to bring some of the best and worst out in each of the girls.
I thought the LGBTQ part of the book was done relatively well. I was terrified in the middle that both girls were going to "see the light" and start dating boys which really would have set me off but, in the end, I thought that Mason did a good job exploring the ambivalence felt, at some point, by all LGBTQ youth. I also thought she did a good job portraying how very stigmatizing and shameful discovering you do not fit in with the hetero crowd can be for young people, so powerful it often is the driving force behind major life choices.
However, in the end, the book was just not that compelling. Had some pretty typical "away at boarding school" story lines from bullying and varying social class issues to secret societies and eccentric teachers but nothing that made them stand out from other novels I've read. I am sure I will lean on this review in the future to tell me not only what I thought of the book but to tell me what exactly it was about...I am quiet sure I won't remember. -
I loved the plot of this book without necessarily loving all of the characters. Annette has an abusive mother and Josie wants to "save" her by taking her to a boarding school where they can enjoy the intimate relationship they both have together. Except...none of this happens. Once they get to the boarding school, Annette tries to blend in with the popular girls and largely ignores Josie except when she wants to make out with her. Josie, on the other hand, is left to make friends with Penn (a boy she eventually may have feelings about and who likes her) and Roxanne (her roommate whose anti-establishment beliefs don't necessarily agree with her family).
Josie's character was lovely. I liked how she was protective of her girlfriend. Although I thought she overdid the protective attitude; Annette eventually has to learn to deal with life herself. Josie was smart, determined, and (as the book makes clear) authentic. Roxanne turned out to be a great roommate and fun character with sardonic dialogue. Penn disappointed me. He turned into a great friend and possibly something more (?) in the end, but what occurred in the middle of the book was a huge turn-off. I liked the private school air and austerity throughout the book (attended one myself!). I thought the author wrote beautifully and her prose held my attention the entire novel. Josie truly did develop as a character and as a person. I wish Annette (who really annoyed me) developed like Josie. I felt like she often used Josie and that there wasn't true depth to their relationship.
