YA or STFU

Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature, by Robin Brande

Brande, Robin (2007). Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature. NY: Knopf. 268 pages.

Fifteen-year-old Mena enters high school with more enemies (the whole school, practically) than friends (zero). A former member of her fundamentalist church’s tight knit youth group, Mena has been ostracized from the group, the church, and even her family after she wrote a letter of apology to a gay teen the youth group had been trying to “save.” On her first day in biology class, Mena finds herself paired with Casey, a science genius who worships their unconventional and brilliant science teacher. As Mena and Casey work on a science project together, Mena glimpses a family and way of living distinctly different from her own sheltered experience and, as she and Casey go to war with a group of students protesting the teaching of evolution in the science classroom, she begins to think more deeply about her Christian beliefs.

While this is not a Christian fiction novel in the tradition of the “Christy Miller” or “Sierra Jenson” series, Brande’s first novel definitely falls closer to this end of the spectrum than to the Madeleine L’Engle or C.S. Lewis end. That said, the stance the book takes about evolution (that it is part of God’s design and falls under the umbrella of free will) will likely disturb the intelligent design camp.

This is a fun, and (oddly enough) light read that would probably appeal more to the younger YA than the older, with its focus on the family lives of the characters and their teachers. I enjoyed this book; however, I don’t feel it was as effective as it could have been. Brande tries to build suspense as she initially skirts the issue of Mena’s ostracism and, when we finally get the details of her rebellion, it is not as complete or satisfying as it could have been. For example, the book hangs on this letter Mena wrote to the gay student bullied by the youth group, but, when it’s finally explained, the letter is neither quoted nor represented. Because this is such a key to Mena’s character, I feel that by failing to get into this in greater detail does a disservice to the novel’s characterization of the protagonist as a whole. That said, the characters of Casey, his family, and their science teacher are completely described (I get the feeling Brande really enjoyed writing these characters) and this almost, but not quite, makes up for Mena’s near cypher-status.