Sunday, April 8, 2012

Review and Giveaway! - Sticky Fingers by Niki Burnham

Sticky Fingers

Paperback288 pages
Published May 11th 2010 by Simon Pulse
Bulletproof, that's how Jenna Kassarian sees herself. It's all about control: As long as she works hard, nothing can hurt her. So Jenna constantly pushes -- for perfect grades, the ideal boyfriend, the best, best friend. 

The only problem is, she doesn't know if she can stop. If she relaxes even for a second, she's afraid she'll lose control completely. 

Then Jenna decides it's now or never. She goes to a party and has one drink. But one drink is all it takes for her perfect facade to shatter. Suddenly she realizes straight A's can't protect you in the real world.

This book starts off during the point in Jenna's life where she's worked her butt off to get into Harvard and finally got that acceptance letter she's been waiting for since she understood what the word college even meant. Her hard-working boyfriend, Scott, also applies but gets rejected. Throughout the novel, we continue to see Scott, the straight-A, "perfect" boyfriend, begin to pressure Jenna into doing what some would call premarital things. 
Scott starts to get frustrated with the fact that Jenna won't take things as far as he'd like, and then one way or another, Jenna goes through something that is, sadly, not so uncommon in our world today.

I've read a few books by Niki Burnham, all good, but none have impacted me like this one has. I originally picked it up because I thought "well, that Jenna girl sounds a lot like me." Plus, my mom said it might help with my abnormal amount of school-stressing levels. *sigh* 
I gave it a shot and got more than I bargained for. 

Putting aside the fact Jenna's constantly being pressured by her boyfriend, she faces a huge turmoil with her best friend, who may or may not have a shoplifting fetish. I think all of us can say that at least once in our life we've faced a time where we've seen a good friend throwing their life away and haven't been so sure what to do about it, and that made it all too easy to relate with Jenna.
I think that's what helped her(and us, maybe?) to learn how to confront people, including herself. 

There's so much you can take away from Sticky Fingers...friendships, relationships, moral. 
SF really helped me recognize that there's a time and place to let loose, its okay every now and then to make a mistake or two, and that aside from all of that, we need to be prepared for unexpected mishaps. 

Something the youth of today likes to ignore is the ever-present use of drugs in society. Most of us say things like, "It won't ever happen to me" and have other ignorant thoughts, when in reality, it very much can be you. As a teen myself, I know what it's like when your parents warn you about date rape and other drugs that can be easily slipped into drinks or food at events so innocent as birthday parties. We laugh at the silliness of it all because we think the chances are close to none. 
Well, here are the odds:
Date rape takes up 80-85 % of the rapes that happen every year in the U.S.
Date rapes also account for an estimate of 70% of all sexual assaults. 
More than 75% of college students who experience unwanted intercourse are under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time.
80-92% of victims are close and comfortable with their attackers.

The bottom line is, is can be you, it might be you, and if you aren't careful about your surroundings and the choices you make, it will be you.

There are plenty ways to take precautions against date rape and the most common are:
Don't go to a club/party/event without someone you would trust with your life. Taking a sibling/best friend/family member with you lessens your chances by at least 50%. 
Bringing your own bottled water. In the case of going to a club, a bartender may even be one to slip you an unwanted drug.
Once you've left your drink unattended, get a new one.
NEVER let anyone else get your drink for you.
Never go off alone with someone you've just met to a place that you may not be familiar with. 
Don't take a ride from a stranger. 88% of DR happens on the way home. 


If you're searching for a quick read with a few good lessons, then I think Sticky Fingers is the book for you. Niki also has plenty of other great reads, and if you're looking for something a little more light than SF, I highly recommend Royally Crushed!

My rating for Sticky Fingers by Niki Burham is 5 stars !

I was luckily able to get in contact with Niki and she gladly offered up a copy of Breaking Up is Hard to Do, a collection of stories from Terri Clark, Ellen Hopkins,Lynda Sandoval and herself! It's off the shelves for now and pretty difficult to find, so make sure to thank Niki IMMENSELY in the comments below for her gratitude. :)
Everyone has till next week to enter. Goodluck!
Breaking Up is Hard to Do

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12 comments:

  1. I can't really say I had a really scary party experience, but let me just say that I'm not a big alcohol drinker now in my 30's because I did quite a bit in my highschool years. I was also the hardworking kid: band class before school started, classes during lunch hour, sports or my part time job after school, rinse and repeat.

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  2. I would rate the book 5 stars, too. I think it isn't just for a good read but also teaches an important lesson that us teenagers forget about. It's true what you say about us having ignorant thoughts, and it's really nice to see those kind of statistics. Nothing really scary has happened to me that would relate to this but alcohol and drugs don't attract me.

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  3. I haven't had any scary party experiences and i was definitely the hardworking kid. i took all the advanced classes, worked and danced after school, babysat on weekends. i loved being busy.

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  4. I was a hardworking kid! Lots of AP classes, lots of after school clubs etc.

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  5. This is so true. No objection here. I cant entirely relate but im pretty sure i can bet that this story is not too far from the truth.

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  6. I was a mixture all almost all of them lol

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