Quinn

by Sally Mandel

College girl Quinn Mallory and her fellow student Will Ingraham are brought together by the strangest competition ever. And their friendship blossoms into a deep and irrevocable love. But as their love grows so do the tensions between them. For Quinn's heart is torn between her love for the strong silent man who is all she holds most dear, and a dream which threatens to separate them forever.

Genres: Romance, Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Valley Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quinn Mallory, a red-haired beauty of Irish descent, is busting her buns to earn a college degree and begin a career in the telecommunications industry. When she’s not studying hard, she’s working two part-time jobs: one as help in the college’s cafeteria, and another as a garage mechanic – she’s a motor head. Her best friends, Vanessa and Stanley, do their utmost to see that she has a life as well. When Van and Stan become officially engaged, Quinn is acutely aware that she has no special someone in her life, and that she is probably one of the few remaining virgins on campus. She sets out to rectify the latter condition by inviting prospective male students to compete for the privilege of taking her virginity. Sex is an experience she wants to have, but her career plans don’t include a restrictive relationship, not for now.

Will Ingraham is a laid-back radical of sorts. He pays little attention to the lovely Quinn until he learns of her competition. It’s unclear exactly what his motive is, but he determines to be the winner. His entrance into Quinn’s little contest throws her for a loop. She hadn’t really considered him either and he’s not the type of guy she could easily wash her hands of.

Self-confident Quinn becomes the queen of denial, her uncertainty masked by overt optimism, candor and humor. Losing her virginity to Will was supposed to be a one-night stand, but Will becomes a major force in her life, threatening to upend her cast-in-concrete plans. Her innocence may be lost, but Quinn is finding herself otherwise. Her voracious sexual appetite for enigmatic and poetic Will is only one discovery in a chain of ominous revelations.

“Quinn” is a microcosm of college life in the mid-1960s, well, at least for colleges in the northeastern part of the U.S. It is a multi-faceted coming-of-age story: young men and women beginning their journey to independent adulthood, and an unsettled nation only beginning to come to grips with deep-rooted social issues. Published in 1982, the book veers into the murky waters of “political correctness”—a term that was only a gleam in social reformer eyes back in the days after the rise of the Civil Rights Movement. Even so, the book contains moments of gritty honesty about attitudes, prejudices, economic and cultural barriers. Quinn and her world lose far more than the quality of innocence.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the storytelling in this book. It was written in the 70's and is a little dated in so far as the dialogues go, but it was a good book. Surprised it has so few ratings.

[Eilidh Graham]

I enjoyed it but i thought it would end differently, i like closure and ''happily ever afters'' and this book had quite an abrupt ending.

[☆ esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think a reason why it’s so hard for me to rate this, is that i often relate to fictional romance books — like i just do get giddy at certain phrases and actions, because that’s exactly the intention behind them.

but reading ‘quinn’ felt very different.
not only is it a book that was written way before i was even born, but i didn’t share more than a single attribute with most of the characters.

for starters: i couldn’t understand why quinn so desperately wanted to lose her virginity and that was due to a) me being on the ace spectrum and b) this being way more normalised in the grand year 2026. so reading the first 200 pages, i mainly felt myself an observer of something that was almost impending doom. and that’s when i started sympathising way more.

i realised i so desperately wanted to try and solve the conflict of the future between quinn & will — but i couldnt. so i started feeling unsettled. this was only further heightened when it was suddenly brought up how quinn’s father had abused her as a child. that was horrific to read and i genuinely had to take a moment. it’s intense, but i do wish we would’ve heard of that sooner & more in depth, or not at all. it makes quinn more understandable, even likeable, but it only being brought up once just messes with the flow of other ongoing plotpoints.

the ending itself also felt a little abrupt. i was interested to see what kind of ending quinn & will would get (and idk if it was just my copy, but will’s poem at the end had a typo and i died cackling💀), to see what would happen to ann, if maybe quinn & will would adopt harvey… i’m not sure if i’m satisfied with the ending, but i don’t think i mind it too much. sometimes relationships start off well — or any situationship at that matter — but sometimes they are prone to last only a certain amount of time.

after reflecting my thoughts & feelings in my head, revisiting some great quotes,… i liked quinn way more towards the end. and i like this book better than i had first expected when i put it down earlier. it was just so different to what i first expected, like the first 50 pages in… tell me why i thought this was gonna be the blooming age of enemies to lovers… 💔💔 tbh i do wish we had more quinn & will banter prior to their situationship, i loved that at the start !!! and it could’ve perhaps set up more of the romantic/intimate interest the main characters suddenly had for each other.


now, for some quotes i enjoyed ! :)

——— “can’t you see? it’s like… coupling sex by computer. mail-order sex. you’ve got this thing about control, and it isn’t something you can control. or ought to, anyway. people fall in love by accident.”
“i don’t.”

——— “he was very kind to me.”
“how was the old man?”
“he said to tell you for him that you’re a son of a bitch.”

——— “must’ve been the crumpets from your visit with the queen.” quinn dropped it ever so casually. stanley smiled at her and she read his eyes: ‘you devious little thing,’ they said.”

——— “if you tell me what you thought of tommy.”
“he has nice teeth.”
“i wish you’d try to be a little jealous.”
“find me a worthy opponent and i will be.”

^^^ LIKE GIMME MORE OF THISSSS. RAHHHHHH

[Sandra Feck · Rating 3 out of 5]

So poignant