True Confessions of a Heartless Girl by Martha Brooks

In the little motel-less town of Pembina Lake, Canada a truck pulled into the Molly Thorvaldson Café one night. The proprietor Lynda has just seen the last customer out. Her five-year-old son Seth is upstairs with a chicken leg in his hand and the previously homeless dog Tessie at his feet.  As much as Lynda tries to ignore the lone truck out in the rain, its young driver, a girl with badly-cut blond hair walks in, asking for a cup of coffee.  Before she knows it, Lynda’s offering the girl, whose name is Noreen, a place to stay for the night. Between the town grandmother Dolores, Del the rangy old cowboy, and Wesley the young, hardworking it’s-complicated boyfriend, Noreen’s story is slowly revealed. 17, pregnant, and a self-named heartless girl, she intentionally and unintentionally wreaks havoc in the lives of all the people she meets. But the residents of Pembina Lake have their own demons to excise and as their lives intersect around Noreen, that just might be what happens.

I’d been in a reading slump recently until I picked up this little contemporary Canadian YA a couple of nights ago. I was surprised to find it would do the trick, but it did. At just under 200 pages it was appealingly slim. It also had an intriguing title and startling cover. Who is this girl with the cropped hair, defiant stance, and the stare that seems to be directed right at me? What makes her heartless and how bad could she really be?

From how that first chapter unfolds in its sparse yet powerful prose I felt such an immediate sense of place and small town character in True Confessions of a Heartless Girl I knew I was settling in for the thick of it. I was sure there would be some drama unfolding that every one of these colorful characters would take part in. Hardworking, educated Lynda, who fled an abusive husband to end up running a coffee shop, barely making ends meet. Reliable, middle-aged Del, who continues to pour time and money into renovating a cottage for a brother who’s long gone. Old, caring town meddler Dolores who proudly wears Jesus sweatshirts and has a way of getting the truth out of anybody before dishing out her sage advice.  From first glance you could tell these were real, damaged people beyond their everyday facades and I anxiously awaited for their troubles to be revealed. Rawer than ever, how would they cope – especially Noreen. She really is a messed up, unfeeling girl who’s accepted her tendency to screw up her life and the lives she touches. She has treated many of the people she loves most very badly, boyfriend Wesley feeling the brunt of it. Yet she freely acknowledges her mistakes as she slowly seeks to change with the little bits of advice she collects from everyone at Pembina Lake as her guide. I loved Wesley too and how he had his own set of problems to work through and conditions needing to be met. Neither Lynda, Dolores, Del, Wesley, or Noreen sacrifices their own integrity for the sake of the plot’s resolution and I intently watched their lives come apart and together again. True Confessions of a Heartless Girl is a rare gem in YA contemp and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Thanks to Angie for wisely and thoughtfully adding it to my stack.

Second Opinions
Angieville Review
BookLoons Review
Reading, Watching, Living Review