REVIEW! Ditched.

DITCHED: A LOVE STORY by Robin Mellom.

High school senior Justina Griffith was never the girl who dreamed of going to prom. Designer dresses and strappy heels? Not her thing. So she never expected her best friend, Ian Clark, to ask her.

Ian, who always passed her the baseball bat, handle first.

Ian, who knew exactly when she needed red licorice.

Ian, who promised her the most amazing night at prom.

And then ditched her.

Now, as the sun rises over her small town, and with only the help of some opinionated ladies at the 7-Eleven, Justina must piece together -- stain by stain on her thrift-store dress -- exactly how she ended up dateless. A three-legged Chihuahua was involved. Along with a demolition derby-ready Cadillac. And there was that incident at the tattoo parlor. Plus the flying leap from Brian Sontag's moving car...

My rating: 3 stars.

MY THOUGHTS:

I know why Ditched was ditched. When it comes down to it all - the story, the purpose... it's all rather lacking. I went into Ditched thinking it'd be a cute, fun read.  And while it's a bit cute (the latter half of the story), it's not very fun.  The story has no feel-good emotions.  It's mostly a downer.  Justina being ditched at prom turns into one exhausted exaggeration after the next. 

As a character, Justina makes little sense. She's strong, she's weak, she's flirty, she's reserved, she's a slut, she's not a slut. See a pattern?  Ultimately, she adds up to one big contradiction.  The other characters get maybe a word to describe them.  Otherwise, they're just names.  I like a little more substance than this, even for a quick read.  Even a bit of background info would've been nice.

The plot is frustrating, to say the least. It drags and drags.  You know when you're watching a really bad horror movie and you end up shouting at the characters on screen, calling them out for their stupidity?  That's the reaction I had to the plot of Ditched.

Needless to say, it just wasn't for me. 

Highlight of the book?  I really liked that the progression of the story depended on the back stories of every stain on Justina's dress. It's a concept I've seen before, yet still neat and kept me wondering.