Various Positions by Martha Schabas

Plot: Georgia, a 14-year-old girl living in Toronto, Canada uses ballet to escape her dysfunctional family life. But when her classmates at her prestigious ballet academy show their growing interests in boys and sex, Georgia struggles to come to terms with her own sexuality and a growing attraction for her much older ballet teacher.

Comments: This book was disturbing. I can't believe this is a young adults novel and recommended for young teenagers. The more I read, the more I was grossed out. Though initially Georgia is determined to focus on her love of ballet, she gradually becomes obsessed with the idea of a relationship with her decades-older teacher. She perceives every little thing he does to be a come-on, a sign that he wants her. A strange part of this is that in the beginning she was worried that her teacher was a creep who was interested in his students - but as time passes, she suddenly switches to actively pursuing him herself. It doesn't make any sense.

In fact, all throughout the book, I never could understand Georgia's motivations for anything she did. She was a very two-dimensional character. The author Schabas had to say everything Georgia was feeling (as in, "I was angry") because Georgia wasn't enough of a developed character for readers to understand her without constant explanations. Though the story was told from Georgia's point of view, she felt like a blank wall, a robot who just wandered through the plot and did what was needed in order to make the plot reach the intended ending. Because I didn't understand or relate to her, I didn't like or have any sympathy for her. It was the same with the rest of the characters. Georgia's mom mopes around the whole book, her dad is distant and elite, and none of the people in the book feel real.

As the plot progresses it grows more and more creepy and Georgia's actions more and more inexplicable. I forced myself to finish, but by the end I was completely disgusted with the book. While some may say it's healthy for teens to read about this side of sex portrayed so openly and unashamedly, I disagree. The only good thing about this story is that Georgia's friends and family took action, confronted Georgia, and found her help when they discovered the extent of the situation - exactly what they should have done. But besides this, I don't see any good messages from this book. I feel like the way Georgia acts and thinks actually tells teens that it's okay to pursue illegal relationships with teachers and middle aged people. And the way the book ends, I feel like it was about to happen all over again. The message this sends and the pure sexual content and graphic descriptions in this book are not appropriate for most teenagers, and certainly not for the average under-16-year-old.

Rating: I rate Various Positions a four out of ten. I hated this book and do not recommend it for anyone - but especially not for teenagers. Not only did I dislike the main character because she didn't feel human, but the story itself was dark and disturbing. This book did not seem to condemn illegal, highly sexual relationships between young teenage girls and middle aged men - rather, it almost said that these relationships are normal and okay.