Nina, heimlich verliebt

Making Out #3

by Katherine Applegate

When Claire broke up with Ben to be with Jake she ended up alone. Now her sister Nina finally has her chance with Ben. Only she doesn't dare tell Claire that she's in love with Ben. And she can't tell Ben, because if he doesn't love her back, it will break her heart. Previously published by HarperCollins as "Boyfriends and Girlfriends" and by Pan/Macmillan as "Making Out".

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fiction, Teen, Childrens, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary Romance

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Katherine Applegate has written many books for young readers, including THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal.

Katherine’s picture books include THE BUFFALO STORM, illustrated by Jan Ormerod (Clarion Books); THE REMARKABLE TRUE STORY OF IVAN, THE SHOPPING MALL GORILLA, illustrated by G. Brian Karas (Clarion Books); SOMETIMES YOU FLY, illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt (Clarion Books); and ODDER: AN OTTER’S STORY, illustrated by Charles Santoso (Feiwel & Friends).

She’s written or co-written three early chapter series for young readers: ROSCOE RILEY RULES, a seven-book series illustrated by Brian Biggs (HarperCollins); DOGGO AND PUPPER, a three-book series illustrated by Charlie Alder (Feiwel & Friends). With Gennifer Choldenko, she co-authored DOGTOWN and MOUSE AND HIS DOG, illustrated by Wallace West (Feiwel & Friends).

Books for middle-grade readers include HOME OF THE BRAVE (Feiwel & Friends); THE ONE AND ONLY series, illustrated by Patricia Castelao, including THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, THE ONE AND ONLY BOB, THE ONE AND ONLY RUBY, and THE ONE AND ONLY FAMILY (HarperCollins); the ENDLING trilogy (HarperCollins); CRENSHAW (Feiwel & Friends); WISHTREE (Feiwel & Friends); WILLODEEN (Feiwel & Friends); ODDER (Feiwel & Friends); and the forthcoming POCKET BEAR (Feiwel & Friends).

With her husband, Michael Grant, Katherine co-wrote ANIMORPHS, a long-running series that has sold over 35 million books worldwide. They also wrote two other series, REMNANTS and EVERWORLD, and a young adult novel, EVE AND ADAM (Feiwel & Friends.)

Katherine’s work has been translated into dozens of languages, and her books have won accolades including the Christopher Medal, the Golden Kite Award, the Bank Street Josette Frank Award, the California Book Award Gold Medal, the Crystal Kite Award, the Green Earth Book Honor Award, the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award, and the E.B. White Read Aloud Award. Many of her works have appeared on state master lists, Best of the Year lists, and Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and New York Times bestseller lists.

Katherine lives in Nevada with her husband and assorted pets. She is represented by Elena Giovinazzo at Heirloom Literary and Mary Pender at WME.

Reviews

[Nicky (burialshroud) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series so much and I'm so glad I decided to re-read it!

Jake is going off the rails and drinks all the time. I guess I would be pretty bummed too if my brother was killed and my sister ceased to exist. Claire follows Jake around trying to entice him. Nina was molested when she went to stay with an aunt and uncle when she was 11, just after her mum died. She's never told anyone about it and now the aunt and uncle are visiting Chatham Island and she's afraid it might happen again. Aisha catches Christopher cheating on her. Zoey and Lucas have a comic relief story where he doesn't want to be homecoming king but somehow gets a nomination.

This is the instalment I wasn't particularly looking forward to reading because it deals with some pretty disturbing subject matter and I knew I'd be embarrassed if it wasn't handled well and I thought I'd be sad if it was handled well.

Well, it was handled well but it wasn't as upsetting as I thought it'd be. Nina talks about her abuse through some pretty disturbing descriptions of the recurring dreams she has about it, but the focus is mainly on the support she gets when she finally tells people what happened to her.

I'm really irritated about Christopher and Aisha. Christopher pursued Aisha relentlessly. HE'S THE ONE who started bandying around words like "boyfriend" and telling her that once he kisses her she'll stay kissed. Now he's got her and the FIRST THING HE DOES is get another girl's number. The second thing he does is make Aisha dinner and tell her how much everything would cost if she was buying it at the restaurant where he works. The third thing he does is bring some other girl back to his apartment. This guy is a DOUCHE. And it irritates me even more because I know what happens over the series.

This episode marks the introduction of "slut" character Louise Kronenberger. In my memory she is super cool and beautiful and makes the whole Chatham Island crew seem like a bunch of uptight small-town puritans. She's only mentioned in this book so I'm interested to see how this memory holds up when she makes more of an appearance.

The pithy little description on the front cover makes it seem like the thing that Nina won't tell is that she has a crush on Benjamin, but as we know it's actually about how she was abused as a child...but she does tell about that. Come to think of it she also tells Benjamin that she has a crush on him when she asks him out at the end of the book, so the title of this novel is completely irrelevant to what happens. A better title might be, Nina Tells...Eventually. In fact some of the titles of the books in this series are even less appropriate than this one and I'm pretty sure it gets worse as the series goes on.

Favourite moments:
-Zoey, Aisha, Nina and Claire at the pep rally where the nominees for homecoming king/queen are announced.
-Claire helps Jake sober up before a football game. I don't know why I like this bit so much. It's possibly because Claire has a mini bottle of Listerine and I love tiny toiletries.
-Claire hears Aisha and Zoey talking about her in the school changing room and subsequently messes with them.

Notes:
-Phantom Holly is nowhere to be seen.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

NEW LIST IS SPOILERY. Actually this whole thing is spoilery. Cuuut!


Like List:
1. Zoey, Nina, Claire, Lucas, Jake, Aisha
...
9278523. Christopher. Fuck Christopher. >:(

This book was so good/sad/awesome!!!

The stuff with Nina was heartbreaking but written so, so well :( I love that she told Zoey and Zoey was so supportive. I also love that Zoey told Ben AND that Zoey admitted to Nina that she told Ben. Aaaand finally I loved how instantly supportive Claire was. It was a little sad that her dad's immediate reaction was that she was lying, but I'm glad he very quickly realized she was serious, especially when everyone backed her up.

I loved Zoey's friendship with Nina. I was a little annoyed with how Zoey was upset with Lucas for not being interested in homecoming king, but on the other hand he should've realized it was important to her and not talked such shit about it. I feel like there's going to be some interesting drama with him being Homecoming King and not Zoey.

I did, however, have a problem with the slut-shaming of Louise Kronenberger. Zoey calling her "dial-a-slut" was pretty uncalled for. I will only have a problem with Louise Kronenberger if she puts her paws on Lucas or vice versa.

I continue to love Lucas *doodles "I <3 L.C." on all her notebooks*. I liked his conversation with Christopher when he was talking about how guys look at girls (and girls do it just as much). I also liked how as soon as Christopher talked about taking it further than looking Lucas was like "Ummmm back the fuck up. Nope." Yaaas Lucas.

Poor Jake is still having some issues with the drinking :( But the way Claire is handling it is making me love her so much. I love how much she's there for him and how much she's trying to help him. She really doesn't have to, but she seems like the only person Jake has and I think she knows that. He's really going to fuck himself over if he keeps doing this :(

Don't even get me started on fucking Christopher. What an a-hole. He's so far down on my like list I don't think he will be able to claw his way back up. When he was looking at the girl on the boat I was like, okay, I mean it sucks to catch your boyfriend looking at another girl, but Lucas was right - everyone does that. It's natural. The problem is when you act on it. Oh, Christopher. I didn't think you'd act on it. In fact, when they saw him in the mall with another blonde girl my first hope was that maybe he was completely innocent. Maybe he was buying like a ring or something from this girl to give to Aisha (not like a WEDDING ring, but something romantic). And she'd be all like I SAW YOU WITH THAT GIRL YOU ASS and he'd be like YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO SEE THAT AND NOW MY SURPRISE IS RUINED :( and she'd be like UHHH WHAT SURPRISE and he'd be like TA DA HERE I GOT YOU THIS and she'd be like asdkjlasdjkasdlajsd *swoons*

NOT THE CASE, IT TURNS OUT. TURNS OUT CHRISTOPHER IS IN FACT A DIRTY FILTHY ROTTEN CHEATING SCUMBAG DICKWAD.

Poor Aisha. Goddamnit. I'm glad she caught him. I hope she kicks his ass to the curb and never looks back. My fear is that he's such a smooth-talker he's gonna find some way to wiggle his way back into her good graces.

ON A MORE PLEASANT NOTE, I screeched and flailed when Nina finally FINALLY told Benjamin she likes him. YAYYYY NINA. I'm so happy they're going to the dance together. I think Benjamin does like her after all. I hope it works out for them. My only worry is if Nina likes Benjamin more than Benjamin likes Nina. But it's clear Benjamin really cares for Nina, so... I'm excited for them :D

SO HELP ME GOD IF BENJAMIN OR LUCAS OR JAKE DO SOMETHING SHITTY. ESPECIALLY LUCAS.

[Katie (Kitkatscanread) · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this was a re-read for me.

I first read this when I was a teenager.

I love these books so much.

The main theme in this book is with Nina. Two family members are coming to stay and an incident happened with one of them a few years ago which has traumatised her.

Aisha is also battling with her boyfriend Christopher as he is being secretive.

Zoey is annoyed with Lucas as he was optioned for Homecoming King, and he's not acting bothered about it.

Jake is battling his feelings for Claire as she was involved in his brother's death.

Claire is desperately trying to win Jake's feelings back.

Benjamin is an awesome blind brother to Zoey and is getting over Claire.

In this book I found that I loved Benjamin. He's an awesome brother as well as friend. He's very smart and funny, however completely oblivious to Nina's feelings towards him. Friendship is very powerful. All the girls have amazing friendships with each other. They don't judge, they just love each other.

I really enjoyed reading this again.

I look forwards to re-reading others.

[Saadia Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a few of the books in this series when I was in secondary school and I could only vaguely remember bits and pieces, like not liking Claire as soon as her name was mentioned. Nina's story, however (well this part of her story), I remembered well. Maybe because it was the first story of its kind that I read or maybe because the narratives that bring the most emotions out of you are the ones that stick with you. This instalment was definitely filled with emotions.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

* So, Nina's uncle who molested her is coming to visit, and she#s really scared and upset about it, even though she feels like she can't talk to anyone about it.
* Nina eventually confesses to Zoey, and Zoey tells her brother Ben.
* Things reach boiling point when the uncle turns up, and speaks about how he's adopting a 2-year-old girl. Nina can't allow him to abuse another child though, and is forced to speak up and tell everyone at dinner what he did to her.
* Jake feels like he's betraying his brother by liking Claire after finding out what happened. Claire tries to get him to spend time with her, and it does work a little bit, leaving Jake conflicted.
* Aisha starts dating Christopher but catches him lying to her several times. She eventually catches him in bed with another girl and dumps him.
* Zoey and Lucas are nominated for homecoming queen and king, but Lucas begins phoning around telling people not to vote for him. Zoey gets upset that he's running things. Lucas then wins homecoming king, but Zoey comes third for homecoming queen. She's annoyed, especially because the girl who won has a reputation for sleeping around, and Zoey doesn't want to lose Lucas to her.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nineties grossness at its worst. And please be careful. The cover copy coyly hints at frivolous BOY! drama, but what Nina is really dealing with is much, much worse. She was molested by her uncle for months when she was a young child. And I can’t say this topic was handled with any sensitivity. Sure, we get some hand-wavey nods to therapy but the overall takeaway is: Nina gets a boyfriend. Rest easy everyone. Nina isn’t gay!!! Gross.
1.5 stars

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressed with a deft handling of trauma and PTSD, especially in a book a month series. It's handled subtly before specifying outright and readers with similar trauma should know they're not alone - or at fault.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a darker book in the series but boy was it good. This series just keeps getting better and it is definitely helping my slump.

[Utmost Cookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich liebe Nina und Ben noch genauso wie damals mit 14, als ich diese Reihe zum ersten Mal gelesen hab. What a great reread!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did not remember how heavy this one is, glad there were some lighter side storylines running through

[Taylor Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooooo good!! Cant wait to read the next one

[Dori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to re-read. This book had more depth than the previous ones.

[Elaine Mullane || Elaine and the Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feeling nostalgic for the books of my youth, I revisited Katherine Applegate and her Islanders omnibus editions (first released as the Making Out series way back in 1993. Yes, I am that old...).

While I found them to be overly-dramatic and a little bit cheesy on second reading, I think they would be loved by teenagers today. YA has taken a much-welcome step in the sphere of fantasy, science fiction and Dystopia, largely, in recent years so for teenagers looking for the traditional romance novels filled with teen-angst and buried secrets, these are a good series to turn to. A little bit Dawson's Creek in it's setting and it's drama, The Islanders is the perfect teen soap opera.

[C. B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember being obsessed with this series when I was 14! I made my mom buy me all 29 books (in Germany a 29th book was published, there is no English translation) after borrowing the first one from my then-best friend.
Looking back, the plots got wilder and wilder with time: A lost half-sister, Claire's stalker, Ben miraculously being able to see again etc. I don't think I would enjoy it as much now as I did ten years ago, but it will only have a special place in my heart.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It teaches you to really be careful who you trust.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nina and her story... :(
Like this book

[Jenaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

sad but good

[Kristel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an okay book. It's all about lovers having rivals to each other. And it has a really good ending.

[Amira Nayef]

L O V E D IT!

[Katherine Hayward Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

After years, I decided to reread the whole series, and this book is about Nina and her life.

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

diese Buchreihe hat mich während meiner Teeniezeit begleitet. ich habe sie so geliebt...