TITLE: Triangles
AUTHOR: Ellen Hopkins
PUBLISHER: Atria Books
PUBLICATION DATE: October 18, 2011
FORMAT: Hardcover
LENGTH: 529 pages
LENGTH: 529 pages
GENRE: Poetry, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781451626339
Three female friends face midlife crises in a no-holds-barred exploration of sex, marriage, and the fragility of life.
Holly: Filled with regret for being a stay-at-home mom, she sheds sixty pounds and loses herself in the world of extramarital sex. Will it bring the fulfillment she is searching for?
Andrea: A single mom and avowed celibate, she watches her friend Holly's meltdown with a mixture of concern and contempt. Holly is throwing away what Andrea has spent her whole life searching for - a committed relationship with a decent guy. So what if Andrea picks up Holly's castaway husband?
Marissa: She has more than her fair share of challenges - a gay, rebellious teenage son, a terminally ill daughter, and a husband who buries himself in his work rather than face the facts.
As one woman's marriage unravels, another's rekindles. As one woman's family comes apart at the seams, another's reconfigures into something bigger and better. In this story of connections and disconnections, one woman's up is another one's down, and all of them will learn the meaning of friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness.
Unflinchingly honest, emotionally powerful, surprisingly erotic, Triangles is the ultimate page-turner. Hopkins's gorgeous, expertly honed poetic verse perfectly captures the inner lives of her characters.
Sometimes it happens like that. Sometimes you just get lost. Get lost in the world of Triangles, where the lives of three unforgettable women intersect, and where there are no easy answers.
This is my first time reading a book told in verse. It has been sitting on my shelf for a while, and I was reluctant to pick it up because I wasn’t sure that I would like it. I was mistaken! I loved the book’s unique style.
This story is told from three points of view (hence, the title): Holly Carlisle, Marissa Trask, and Andrea Dawn. Holly and Andrea are BFFs, and Marissa and Andrea are sisters.
Holly is your typical bored housewife, who thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. She has three teenagers, and a husband who adores and bores her with the vanilla sex. She doesn't really want to leave him, because she has grown accustomed to their self-indulgent lifestyle that his profession provides. She is approaching the big 4-0 and is heading for a midlife crisis, and she wants to shake up her life a bit. She decides to try her hand at writing erotica, but she first needs to do some research so she rationalizes her extra-marital fun.
Andrea at 36 years of age is the youngest of the trio, and she wants everything that Holly has! She wants the dedicated and devoted hubby with the family life. Truth be told, she’s had a secret crush on Holly’s husband for years. She is a single mom of a 13-year-old daughter, who is best friends with Holly’s youngest. Her ex-husband hasn’t been in the picture much, but he says he’ll do better with plans to relocate closer to them due to a new job.
Poor Marissa! Her four-year-old daughter, Shelby, was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, so her life is busy tending to her needs. Her husband, Christian, is an absent husband and father, so everything falls on Marissa’s shoulders. There is also family strife concerning their teenage son, Shane, who has recently admitted that he is gay. Christian has a very hard time with this, so he is at odds with his son over it. Meanwhile, Shane tells it like it is and says that his dad sucks at being a father!! Overburdened and exhausted, Marissa just tries to get through each day the best that she can, with no help from her workaholic partner.
This book was so much better than I expected! I don’t read chick-lit, so a book about women’s relationship woes is not my thing. However, Ellen Hopkins totally sucked me in! I did NOT like Holly at all, but she made for an entertaining character. She is shallow and vain, especially since she recently shed a ton of weight. I had my issues with Andrea as well. She was a high school stoner who hooked up with a jock and she became pregnant, and they got married right after graduation. They weren’t really in love, so the marriage was doomed from the start. She’s not quite as promiscuous as Holly, but she is pretty casual about her own sexcapades! She enables Holly’s behavior by covering for her so that she can hook up with other guys and go to sex clubs. On top of that, she’s a terrible sister! When Marissa couldn't reach Christian and needed help with Shelby, she called Andrea who made up an excuse that she had to pick up her daughter from her father’s house because she can’t handle being around her dying niece. Nice!! Unlike Holly and Andrea, Marissa has no time to think about a sex life because her world revolves around Shelby’s 24-hour care. Maybe if her selfish husband was around to help out at home and to share the responsibility of caring for THEIR daughter, she would actually have the time and energy to have sex with him! Overall, I really enjoyed how the lives of these women intermingled with each other and how their stories are interwoven.
Ellen Hopkins is a new-to-me author, and I do already own several of her YA books (Crank, Glass, and Perfect) and now I need to dig those books out of my dusty bookcases because I can’t wait to read more from her!
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