“Heart on My Sleeve,” by Ellen Wittlinger

I must admit, one of my favorite things about “Heart on my Sleeve” is that the main character, Chloe, and I have the same taste in music.  The epistolary style drew me in to begin with, but the fact that all of Chloe’s subject lines are lyrics to folk songs is what really won me over.  Chloe is an 18 year old Bostonian, in the midst of graduating from high school and deciding which college to go to.  Her college search has led her to Julian, a boy she met while visiting a college in Connecticut.  Despite the fact that Chloe has a boyfriend, and Julian has an almost-girlfriend, they start getting to know each other over e-mail and IM.  The letters serve as a means of dishing out their insecurities and rants about life, bringing them confusingly close, and enlightening the readers on their lives.  Chloe’s confusion over her feelings for Julian serve as the main plot, but her sister coming out as a lesbian, Julian’s sister getting married, Julian trying to gather up enough money to go to college, and both of them trying to get through prom, graduation and the rest of high school all tie together nicely.  As an added bonus, the song lyrics in the titles of the emails add extra insights into Chloe’s feelings (and if you’re me, get a bunch of Dar Williams songs stuck in your head).  The tension lies in whether or not Julian and Chloe will get along as well as they think they do, once they see each other in person again.  They plan an elaborate weekend visit, and the drama unfolds from there.

I liked the commentary that Wittlinger makes about the different types of communication, and for teens, pondering long distance relationships is relevant to them as they transition from high school to leaving home for college.  The characters were lovable but introspective, and intelligent but still in touch with modern teenager-hood.  Chloe and Julian’s shared interest in folk music and liberal arts colleges set them apart from your average Gossip Girl, and made for interesting characters.  The parallels between Chloe’s reaction to her sister coming out and Julian’s reaction to his sister’s shotgun wedding were also nicely drawn, bringing the two closer together as well as adding to their transitional woes.  Above all of that, though, it was a fun and entertaining read with a great ‘soundtrack’ (the back of the book contains a guide to all the music references).

Book talk hook:  I might play a clip and introduce some of the music references, selling the book as a “novel with a soundtrack.”

Wittlinger, Ellen (2005). Heart on My Sleeve. NY: Simon and Schuster. 240 pages.