What do you think?
Rate this book
Ever After
Mainly because the here and now is so lame, even if it is the summer. Her best friend, Vicky, is jealous of newcomer Grace, and who knows what's up with Jason, her ex-fling. Her mother doesn't understand her, her father's no good at pivotal moments, and even Prince Purple Flower has deserted her. She may yet turn to a life of petty crime.
Doesn't everyone get a happily ever after? Molly is definitely ready for the ever after part to begin.
- GenresYoung AdultTeen
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
4 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Vail
56 books457 followersBirth
I was born on July 25, 1966, in NEW YORK CITY, and grew up in New Rochelle, NY, with my mother, my father, and my younger brother Jon. (And down the street from my future husband, though of course I didn't know that until much later.)
Interests
Some details, I do know-I was very into reading and theater, so I read every book I could get my hands on (especially realistic fiction, either contemporary or historical) and took acting workshops and auditioned for every play in school, camp, or the community. I played Peter Pan, Miss Hannigan in Annie, Benny Southstreet in Guys and Dolls, the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, and lots of extremely memorable chorus parts-for instance, I was "girl number two" in Fiddler on the Roof-the one who said "We heard about your sister, Chava". I didn't care -I just wanted to be on stage. Waiting backstage before curtain call, after giving my all in a performance, was the best feeling I knew. In seventh grade I started taking magic lessons, and by eighth grade I was making all my own spending money by performing at kids' birthday parties as a clown named Tallulah. I liked the freedom of wearing all that grease-paint-I could be as wacky and un-cool as I wanted. I tried dance but felt so clumsy. I faked a sprained ankle to get out of the recital. I took voice lessons which made me a little light-headed (and I was afraid of the voice teacher's growling, drooling Doberman) and both saxophone and piano, neither of which I ever practiced. I did well in school but started a lot of my work at the last minute, in a crazy mad dash, so that it was never late but there were usually careless errors or areas I had to fudge. I had this idea that to work hard at something was sort of a negative, an admission that I didn't have natural talent. If I wasn't going to be Mozart and have the music (or dance, or math, or social studies term paper, or whatever) channeled through me from God, then I was just embarrassing myself by all that workmanlike effort. I didn't get over that idea until after college, by the way.
Career Ambitions
I never really planned to be a writer. I planned to be a financial wizard after learning about option-spreading at age 10, then a poet after discovering Shakespeare at 11. After overhearing "the real power is held by the lobbyists" on a class trip to Albany, I planned to become a lobbyist. Secretly, of course I always imagined myself as an actress, but that didn't seem hard or important enough, and also I worried I wasn't naturally gifted enough.
Parents
My parents were always great. I liked to make them proud, and they trusted me and supported my efforts and interests, which was sometimes weirdly tough. There was so little for me to rebel against.
As a Kid
When people ask me what I was as a kid, I always feel like my answer is at best incomplete.What are you like, as a kid? I'm still trying to figure out what I'm like as an adult.
Socially
Well, things went in waves. Sometimes I felt very "in", very aware of and tied in to the whole scene, excited by who liked whom, all the gossip, some of it less than kind. Other times I felt so alone-like there was nobody like me, nobody who liked me, nobody to talk to. And much of the time it was somewhere in between. A best friend when I was lucky, and a few people in each crowd I liked and who liked me. I resisted being classified as a brain or a jock or alternative or popular-too limiting. I would have to shut down too many parts of myself to be just one type.
Adolescence
I went through a very intense stage in middle school (Junior High). I worried about being too ordinary. I also worried about being too weird. I also worried about changing states of matter, my inability to be morally certain, ignorance (my own and world-wide), and making a fool of myself.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/rachel...
I was born on July 25, 1966, in NEW YORK CITY, and grew up in New Rochelle, NY, with my mother, my father, and my younger brother Jon. (And down the street from my future husband, though of course I didn't know that until much later.)
Interests
Some details, I do know-I was very into reading and theater, so I read every book I could get my hands on (especially realistic fiction, either contemporary or historical) and took acting workshops and auditioned for every play in school, camp, or the community. I played Peter Pan, Miss Hannigan in Annie, Benny Southstreet in Guys and Dolls, the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, and lots of extremely memorable chorus parts-for instance, I was "girl number two" in Fiddler on the Roof-the one who said "We heard about your sister, Chava". I didn't care -I just wanted to be on stage. Waiting backstage before curtain call, after giving my all in a performance, was the best feeling I knew. In seventh grade I started taking magic lessons, and by eighth grade I was making all my own spending money by performing at kids' birthday parties as a clown named Tallulah. I liked the freedom of wearing all that grease-paint-I could be as wacky and un-cool as I wanted. I tried dance but felt so clumsy. I faked a sprained ankle to get out of the recital. I took voice lessons which made me a little light-headed (and I was afraid of the voice teacher's growling, drooling Doberman) and both saxophone and piano, neither of which I ever practiced. I did well in school but started a lot of my work at the last minute, in a crazy mad dash, so that it was never late but there were usually careless errors or areas I had to fudge. I had this idea that to work hard at something was sort of a negative, an admission that I didn't have natural talent. If I wasn't going to be Mozart and have the music (or dance, or math, or social studies term paper, or whatever) channeled through me from God, then I was just embarrassing myself by all that workmanlike effort. I didn't get over that idea until after college, by the way.
Career Ambitions
I never really planned to be a writer. I planned to be a financial wizard after learning about option-spreading at age 10, then a poet after discovering Shakespeare at 11. After overhearing "the real power is held by the lobbyists" on a class trip to Albany, I planned to become a lobbyist. Secretly, of course I always imagined myself as an actress, but that didn't seem hard or important enough, and also I worried I wasn't naturally gifted enough.
Parents
My parents were always great. I liked to make them proud, and they trusted me and supported my efforts and interests, which was sometimes weirdly tough. There was so little for me to rebel against.
As a Kid
When people ask me what I was as a kid, I always feel like my answer is at best incomplete.What are you like, as a kid? I'm still trying to figure out what I'm like as an adult.
Socially
Well, things went in waves. Sometimes I felt very "in", very aware of and tied in to the whole scene, excited by who liked whom, all the gossip, some of it less than kind. Other times I felt so alone-like there was nobody like me, nobody who liked me, nobody to talk to. And much of the time it was somewhere in between. A best friend when I was lucky, and a few people in each crowd I liked and who liked me. I resisted being classified as a brain or a jock or alternative or popular-too limiting. I would have to shut down too many parts of myself to be just one type.
Adolescence
I went through a very intense stage in middle school (Junior High). I worried about being too ordinary. I also worried about being too weird. I also worried about changing states of matter, my inability to be morally certain, ignorance (my own and world-wide), and making a fool of myself.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/rachel...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 8, 2011
This book! I read it over and over as a kid and started reminiscing about it the other day. I couldn't remember the title, the author, any of the characters' names, or much about the plot (to be fair, the plot is pretty "quiet" and not super event-driven). But all these little details kept sticking in my mind and so I spent two hours on the internet tracking it down.
Rereading it 15+ years later, it is still pretty great. This is one of the passages I remembered almost verbatim: "I was taking off my brown turtleneck last night, the night before high school started, and I saw myself in the mirror with the hair all pulled off my face, caught in the turtleneck, and thought, with absolute clarity, This is what I'll look like when I'm thirty. I didn't hate it. That's something." (What!?!?)
Side note: there are lots of little details about the protagonist essentially starving herself ("I have to lose ten pounds immediately, although I object to dieting in general as very antifeminist"). But it's a detail on the edge of the scenes, a reflection of how hard and strange it is to be a teenager with your brain swimming with all sorts of weird stuff for the first time ("I've been thinking about how death is going to feel").
Rereading it 15+ years later, it is still pretty great. This is one of the passages I remembered almost verbatim: "I was taking off my brown turtleneck last night, the night before high school started, and I saw myself in the mirror with the hair all pulled off my face, caught in the turtleneck, and thought, with absolute clarity, This is what I'll look like when I'm thirty. I didn't hate it. That's something." (What!?!?)
Side note: there are lots of little details about the protagonist essentially starving herself ("I have to lose ten pounds immediately, although I object to dieting in general as very antifeminist"). But it's a detail on the edge of the scenes, a reflection of how hard and strange it is to be a teenager with your brain swimming with all sorts of weird stuff for the first time ("I've been thinking about how death is going to feel").
May 8, 2012
Molly writes about the summer she's 14 in a handsomely bound journal, a gift from her difficult best friend Vicky. Quick to take offense, at odds with her divorced mother, jealous of their new friend Grace, a visitor to their Massachusetts island Vicky even twists news of Molly's first period into a slight--and then exacts a promise that she won't tell her own nice mom. Still, Molly is loyal; the two have always been close, and though she chafes at Vicky's goading she's too uncertain of herself to rebel. Fond of a boy who broke up with her after a single kiss, she's also attracted to Vicky's brother, who used to babysit them; she has just discovered Toni Morrison's novels and seems to be drifting away from her parents, who are mystified at having such a bookish daughter Dad's a landscaper she covers her developing body with voluminous clothes and stops eating. In the end, discovering that Vicky betrayed her by secretly reading her journal sets Molly free: Jolted into a more mature sense of herself, she choses high school courses that are best for her, not Vicky, and gets her eating habits in order. If she ever accepts Vicky again, it will be on her own terms. There's more than ample detail here to delineate this uneasy friendship, yet each incident is telling and almost painfully realistic. Vail not only likes and respects her young characters; she knows them inside out. An unusually immediate portrayal of a thoughtful teen finding her balance among her peers while making peace with her own capabilities.
August 24, 2012
I liked this book a lot. It's what I had expected the book to be like. It's about a girl named Molly (who is the main character) who doesn't want grow up but is fourteen years old.She decided to write in her journal she just got for her fourteenth birthday from her friend Vicky.Her journal is about what it felt to be a kid for the future her.Also, molly has two great friends but one of them(Vicky)doesn't like the other friend (Grace).Ever since Molly and Vickys other friend(Keiko)left them to go to the popular group there were problems.Then there is Henry Vickys older brother who is dating Nadine.Also,there is a boy named Jason who Molly used to date, but then they broke up because Vicky got in between them.Then she(Molly)stole one or two things in from stores also,she didn't want to do it because she was being peerpessured.The story is mainly about a girl who is growing up and becoming a woman.Also,having to deal with her changing relationship with her parents as she is changing and getting older,also, having a changing relationship with her dad and mother. Molly learned what is true friend is after what had happened to her and Vicky. The reason why Vicky and Molly aren't friends anymore is because Molly realized that Vicky wasn't being a good friend by Vicky not letting her be friends with anyone but her,doing what she says to do like losing wait and tearing up the one thing that meant a lot to her and that was the thing she wrote in about what it was like for her to be a kid for her future shelf to read but Molly manged to put it back it back together.Then becoming really good friends with the person she hadn't expected to be friends with and that person is Grace.Also,the thing I learned from this book was that a true friend would want you to have other friend,for you to do things you want to do,and not read your secrets and tell anyone about them.
April 7, 2016
I read this book before, but I totally forgot that I read this book before. ;p
This is an interesting book. I don't know what to say. It's a simple read, but the emotion inside the book is complicated. This is a girl, Molly, who is coming to age, but has no idea what she's supposed to do. She wants to fit in: good-looking, attractive, sexy, and all the other traits of being a hot 14 year-old girl. But the reality is a fat, brainy, and confused 14 year-old girl who has wired-rim glasses. She's not sure of herself. She doesn't know who she is. So she tries stealing. She tries to look cool. But on the other hand, she doesn't want to lose the good traits she has. Her trust between her two best friends are wobbly. She's confused about her love life. So she writes in her diary. The only place where she can tell her feelings. Her story. The ending made sense. I actually liked how it turned out. It wasn't really a cliff-hanging bit, but it was almost as if she realized finally what she needed to do her life. At first, I didn't like the ending, but I got used to it, and it was pretty nice.
This is an interesting book. I don't know what to say. It's a simple read, but the emotion inside the book is complicated. This is a girl, Molly, who is coming to age, but has no idea what she's supposed to do. She wants to fit in: good-looking, attractive, sexy, and all the other traits of being a hot 14 year-old girl. But the reality is a fat, brainy, and confused 14 year-old girl who has wired-rim glasses. She's not sure of herself. She doesn't know who she is. So she tries stealing. She tries to look cool. But on the other hand, she doesn't want to lose the good traits she has. Her trust between her two best friends are wobbly. She's confused about her love life. So she writes in her diary. The only place where she can tell her feelings. Her story. The ending made sense. I actually liked how it turned out. It wasn't really a cliff-hanging bit, but it was almost as if she realized finally what she needed to do her life. At first, I didn't like the ending, but I got used to it, and it was pretty nice.
May 1, 2010
I may not be the best judge, but this book seems perfect for middle school girls. 14-year-old Molly says she’s writing a journal, to remind her future self of how tough life can be. There's no diary stylisms, however: no date/time markers or hand-written headers. The focus is on what's happening and what Molly's feeling. She’s a typical bright uncertain ‘not-so-popular as she’d like to be’ girl. Every day threatens a new life-or-death MS crisis, and with her journal, Molly relives all the emotional spikes. She shares her quick takes and anxious wondering about growing up: crushes, kisses, parents, her period, her obsession with food and her weight, and especially her two best friend/rivals – Vicky and Grace. Their group dynamic shifts with every slight and perceived mis-step. It’s a simple triangle, with extremely sharp edges. Sure, boys could learn a lot from reading this. Girls, on the other hand, may see a good bit of themselves.
February 11, 2016
This book might not be for someone like me 13 old and bald and decidedly boyish. But for millions of middle school girls, Ever After is near-perfect.
14-year-old Molly says she 19s writing a journal, to remind her future self of how tough life can be. She 19s a typical bright uncertain 18not-so-popular as she 19d like to be 19 girl. Every day threatens a new life-or-death MS crisis, and with her journal, Molly relives all the emotional spikes. She shares her quick takes and anxious wondering about growing up: crushes, kisses, parents, her period, her obsession with food and her weight, and especially her two best friend/rivals 13 Vicky and Grace.
Their group dynamic shifts with every slight and perceived mis-step. It 19s a simple triangle, with extremely sharp edges. Sure, boys could learn a lot from reading this. Girls, on the other hand, may see a good bit of themselves.
14-year-old Molly says she 19s writing a journal, to remind her future self of how tough life can be. She 19s a typical bright uncertain 18not-so-popular as she 19d like to be 19 girl. Every day threatens a new life-or-death MS crisis, and with her journal, Molly relives all the emotional spikes. She shares her quick takes and anxious wondering about growing up: crushes, kisses, parents, her period, her obsession with food and her weight, and especially her two best friend/rivals 13 Vicky and Grace.
Their group dynamic shifts with every slight and perceived mis-step. It 19s a simple triangle, with extremely sharp edges. Sure, boys could learn a lot from reading this. Girls, on the other hand, may see a good bit of themselves.
June 22, 2012
Ever After was about a girl named Molly who has a best friend named Vicky. Vicky is jealous because Molly has a new friend named Grace. Molly switched sides a couple of times, but in the end she ends up not being friends with Vicky. Ever After was okay. It was not one of my favorite books because it wasn't that exciting, and it wasn't the type of book that made me want to read it every second. I didn't like how Molly kept important things from her mother. I did like that Molly always tried to be fair with her friends. I think she was smart to not be friends with Vicky in the end even though Vicky has been her best and only friend since she was little because Vicky didn't let her be who she wanted to be or let her do what she wanted to do. Vicky was very controlling and was very insecure of losing Molly. If you like books that have to do with friend problems this book is great for you.
January 6, 2014
When I think about my childhood, I think about this book. I read it so many times that the cover fell off. There was just something about it that spoke to me as a pre-teen. I recently re-bought it and re-read it and I was shocked that I could still remember the opening page and the last page. I also really think the book holds up through the years and kids these days could definitely relate to the issues that Molly faces throughout the book.
February 27, 2022
Well I read at the same age of Molly writing in her journal. I think it was a nice read that I related to. This book talked about friendship, boys, body image, and the troubles of teenage years. You should really give it a try and check it out <3
February 21, 2008
defined my adolescents
May 23, 2008
its ok i guess...
November 29, 2008
really good... got kinda boring at middle-end... but still good...
Want to read
March 10, 2010i would like to read this book for the next quarter.
April 6, 2010
this book was pretty boring with out much plot or anything. the whole story was flat with flat characters. this book has no climax at all.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews