Ripple by Heather Smith Meloche (2016)

Tessa is addicted to one thing “everyone” wants in high school: sex. Hooking up with random guys gives her a sense of being loved, a sense of being wanted, and the joy of forgetting her homelife, which on the outside doesn’t seem that bad. Except her once wonderful stepdad has turned into a drunk, and her whole family’s financial situation depends on her going to college --- a college that she dreads going to. However, sex is starting to give her no relief, and her life is starting to crumble. Then, at a her boyfriend’s football game she runs into Jack, who’s new town but already has a reputation for pulling notorious pranks. But behind the careless behavior is a boy who is fighting to save his mom from schizophrenia, and failing. Right away, Jack and Tessa feel a pull toward each other, but for anything to happen in between them, they must help themselves first.

As you could probably tell from reading the synopsis, and what I could tell from reading the book, Ripple is definitely one for mature teens who aren’t afraid to talk about sex. As squeamish as the topic makes some people, I think this story needs to be read and heard. We’ve all heard of stories of alcohol and drug addiction, but we tend to shy away from talking about other forms of addiction. On the rare occasion sex addiction is brought up, it’s always in an adult context, but never about teens. Honestly, I had never even really thought about it until now. That being said, I really enjoyed Tessa’s perspective (the story is told in dual point of view). I thought she was really honest about her addiction, and admitted that even to her it didn’t make total sense. What sold her perspective for me was that the author, Heather Smith Meloche, went through the same addiction when she was younger, so she gave Tessa’s voice an authentic ring.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy about Tessa, and a part I didn’t like about the book, is that Tessa slut shamed herself. Yes, she was in a situation that wasn’t the best, but the act of having sex with multiple people in itself is not wrong, but she really beat herself up over it. Not only did she slut shame herself, she (and others) slut shamed other individuals. There was a lot of sex negative language going on, and it centered mostly around the girls.

Jack, on the other hand, I loved through and through. I felt like he evolved a lot throughout the book, even though he was already pretty cool to start off with. He had a lot of characteristics of typical “bad boy”, like being cocky and arrogant. But something stops me from labeling him as that. Maybe it’s because he was so passionate about whatever he was doing, or that he was one of the most caring characters I’ve read. The level of love and protection he had for his mom was unreal, especially with all of her faults. Jack’s mom had schizophrenia, and it was really heartbreaking to see the progression of her illness as the story when on. I honestly can’t say how realistic the portrayal was since I have no personal experience with schizophrenia, but I felt that the story definitely communicated how impactful the disorder is on not just the person who has it, but on everyone associated with that person.

As the title suggests, Ripple is all about how every decision makes leads to another decision, just like how a ripple in the water leads to another ripple. That being said, I really enjoyed how Heather Smith Meloche was able to connect all of her storylines together, which made the plot super interesting. Every detail ended up counting, and the overall story really stuck true to it’s title.

A debut with a little bit of problems, Ripple is still a story meant to be read.

3 Stars