Corey Mays, the clueless but sweet football player, is another well-drawn, appealing character. I adored the loving, lesbian mother-figure (Mama Jane) who takes care of Davie, and I loved Mama Jane’s hilarious miserly nephew who eventually becomes Davie’s father figure. She has a fight on her hands, however, because the Davidia she was – timid, angry, and revengeful – is always trying to make a comeback.ĭiscussion: I loved the honesty of this book. In LA, Davie has the opportunity to remake herself, and become what she has always wanted to be. Even though she was in love (from afar) with the rich quarterback, James Farrell, he didn’t know she was alive, and so Davie watched Molly Ringwald movies and daydreamed about how it would be if she “got the guy.” But after a particularly brutal beating by her mother and a particularly awful humiliation by kids in school (led by James’ hoity-toity high-yellow sisters), she runs away, catching a ride with “Mama Jane,” a truck driver, to Los Angeles.

Her mother was an alcoholic and a prostitute, she had no father, and the kids in school made fun of her because of her dark skin, calling her Monkey Night and taunting her by making monkey sounds when she would pass by them. The story is narrated by Davidia “Davie” Jones, who was brought up in poverty with in small, insular Glass, Mississippi. 32 Candles is a smart and warm romantic comedy that I think would appeal to males as much as females.

32 Candles by Ernessa T. Carter