RITA Reader Challenge Review

Affective Needs by Rebecca Taylor

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Faellie. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the YA Romance category.

The summary:

Ninety-two days. That’s all that’s left. Just ninety-two days and Ruth Robinson, calculus genius, will stand with her arms raised in a triumphant V as the valedictorian of Roosevelt High. With her early admit to Princeton’s Neuroscience program burning a hole in her pocket, Ruth can hardly wait to show her fellow teenage troglodytes that while she didn’t have followers, friends, or “times” in basements, she was the one ending up on top.

All she needs to do is white knuckle her way through this waiting place last semester and then, finally, she’ll be on her way. Except, the first day back from winter break, Porter Creed shows up. Porter is a special education transfer—Affective Needs. And just like all the other desk flippers and chair throwers in the affective needs classroom, Porter has some major emotional problems. But when Porter strolls onto Ruth’s home turf, Advanced Calculus, and disrupts her axis by being both gorgeous and the only person better at math than her—Ruth begins to realize that maybe life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.

Here is Faellie's review:

I was late to the RITA reviewing party but there was a gap for a reviewer of either YA or Inspirational: I’m not inspirational but I was young once so YA it is. Checking out the title of Affective Needs was itself an education: apparently it’s a term for having emotional and social difficulties. Which I would have thought summed up pretty much everyone in high school, but there you go.

Right. Here we are in Trenton, New Jersey, with our heroine Ruth in first person narrative counting down the days until she escapes her final year at Roosevelt High. She has a high opinion of her intelligence and over the top snark for everything and everyone else, including her fellow social outcast and best gay black friend, Eli. Our hero is Porter Creed, the aforesaid Affective Needs guy who is newly arrived in school and (of course) turns out to be even better at math than prospective Valedictorian Ruth. Early on Porter calls Ruth out on her attitude:

“You were right; you do have a bad temper.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“Yes, but I’m labeled and filed. You’re allowed to just prowl around in the general population.”

“I’ve never tried to bash someone’s brains inside out.”

He turned his head and his eyes met mine. “Maybe not physically.”

The plotting of the novel worked well and the setting of an American high school seemed authentic. I liked the writing, in particular the dialogue. The character of Ruth took a while to gel for me, perhaps because she embodies a significant number of different ideas and perhaps because she starts out as not particularly likable, but she grows over the course of the book, and my sometimes intense irritation with her resolved into something closer to sympathy and liking.

Porter as hero was seen through Ruth’s narrative which limited his character development somewhat but there was enough there for him to hold up his side of the story. Secondary characters were well developed: I missed seeing more of best friend Eli as the book progressed but this was consistent with the plotting. There is a suitably HFN ending.

I think this would be a good book for its YA audience. I think it has fully earned its RITA nomination, and, acknowledging that an elderly English curmudgeon is probably not its target audience, I’m happy to give it a solid B+ grade.

This book is available from:
  • Available at Amazon

  • Order this book from Barnes & Noble
  • Order this book from Kobo

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!

Affective Needs by Rebecca Taylor

View Book Info Page

Add Your Comment →

  1. Kareni says:

    Thanks for your review, Faellie. Your and the other review are enticing me to pick up a copy of this book.

  2. CoCo D says:

    I definitely agree with your observation about Ruth not always being likable and that the high school setting seemed authentic. It was fun to read your review!

Add Your Comment

Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

↑ Back to Top