True Confessions of a Heartless Girl
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| Author | Martha Brooks |
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| Illustrator | Erik Mohr |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult fiction |
| Publisher | Groundwood Books/Douglas & McIntyre |
| Pages | 210 |
| ISBN | |
True Confessions of a Heartless Girl received the Governor General's Literary Award in 2002 and is Martha Brooks' seventh novel for young adults. Martha Brooks is a Canadian award-winning novelist, playwright, jazz singer and author of short fiction. Some of her other novels are: Andrew's Tree, Being with Henry, Bone Dance, I Met a Bully on the Hill, Mistik Lake, Traveling On into the Light, Two Moons in August, Paradise Café and Other Stories, and Queen of Hearts.True Confessions of a Heartless Girl tells the story of Noreen Stall, a troubled and possibly pregnant seventeen-year-old girl who stumbles upon the town of Pembina Lake after stealing her boyfriend's truck and savings.
On a stormy July night, Lynda Bradley, the owner of The Molly Thorvaldson Café, notices a pair of headlights pull up in front of the café just before closing time. She allows the flustered looking teenage girl from inside the truck to come in and have a cup of coffee. Lynda learns that this girl's name is Noreen and tells her that she is in Pembina Lake. Noticing that she is most likely in some sort of trouble with no place to go, Lynda makes up the cot for her to sleep on that night. Later on, Noreen notices something slimy in the couch cushions, a gnawed-on chicken leg, and tosses it to the dog. In the morning, Dolores Harper comes by to help with the café like she does every Saturday morning. Meanwhile, Tessie, Seth's dog, is sick and so is Noreen.
• Confessions of Pride - Noreen Age 12: Noreen recalls the day of her 19-year-old stepsister's wedding. Noreen is angry and upset because this means she will be left alone with Bob and Amazing. Noreen tells Gladys she looks like hell as she walks out of the room.
• Confessions of Lust - Noreen Age 14: Noreen hates the way Bob, her stepfather, looks at her. As she is leaving the house to meet up with her boyfriend at the time, Brad, Bob remarks that she looks like a hooker. He also says that she better not get herself knocked up like her mother did. Noreen's mother was pregnant with her at age 17, and was on welfare by age 18. This was when she was rescued by Bob. Noreen then goes to meet up with Brad and fools around with him anyway.
• Confessions of Sloth - Noreen Age 15: Noreen's mother is angry that she has skipped 10 days of school that month. Since Noreen will not listen to her, Amazing calls her stepsister, Gladys. Gladys asks her why she is not in school and tells her to stop acting out. Noreen will not take Gladys' advice either.
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