Review Detail

Justina's story begins on the morning after Prom. She indulges in a bit of temporary amnesia, for the audience's benefit, not hers. She wonders about a tattoo, a bruise in the shape of a french fry and the various stains on her dress, even though it soon becomes apparent that she remembers everything. This is definitely the low point of the novel. It certainly does grab your interest, but I didn't appreciate the pretense that she didn't know what had happened.

However, even as her clearly perfect memory frustrated me, I loved finding out her story bit by bit. Justina drags her unfortunate self to the 7-11, the good one, and begins unloading her depressing tale of woe onto the clerk (Gilda), later joined by a customer (Donna). This method of storytelling is a classic because it works. Plus, I just loved the way the chapters alternated between the food she was fed at the 7-11 and the various injuries and stains she attained during the night before.

Ditched is one of those stories where every possible bad luck thing that can happen does. Of course, some of them are Justina's fault, but many of them are not. A big bit of the blame goes to her mom, who thought Justina should dye her shoes to match her iridescent blue dress from the thrift store. It was also mom's idea to have bought said dress, which turns out to be a magnet for stains and not made of the sturdiest stuff.

If you're looking for some good schadenfreude, Ditched will not disappoint. I certainly feel a little better about missing out on the prom.