It All Went By Too Fast

This book is a 2006 Cybil Award Nominee for YA Fiction.

Angel Hansen makes only one mistake — but it’s the one that changes everything. Every girl knows never to drink and go off by herself with a guy, but she’s just too drunk to really process it all, and sure enough, Angel gets pregnant. Her choice to have her baby is a life-altering, gut wrenching stand-alone decision, the bravest and possibly the scariest thing that Angel has ever done. By why is her best friend pulling away from her now? And most confusing (and least explored) of all is why is Danny Stanton, the boy who could only ever make up his mind to hang out/make out with her when he was drunk, why is he sticking close, now that Angel is visibly pregnant?

This was a difficult book to enjoy. I found the language and dialogue reasonably believable, and the descriptions and sense of place well-crafted, but I was unable to fully enter into the world of the characters, as some of their actions and reactions to things seemed highly unlikely. This book appears very much to be a novel aimed at educating young adult women on what not to do with boys and pregnancy, and readers may likely come away feeling that they have been instructed instead of entertained. There are myriad problem novels on the “issue” of teen pregnancy; Angel’s Choice presents a character going through many of the same challenges we have seen before, with a dubiously sparkly Cinderella prom-type ending.