Where I Belong (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Where I Belong Karen Coats Heasley, Gwendolyn. Where I Belong. HarperTeen, 2011. 291p. Paper ed. ISBN 978-0-06-197884-5 $8.99 Ad Gr. 7–10. With their investment-banker father laid off and the family’s savings wiped out in a Ponzi scheme, Corrinne and her younger brother, Tripp, are sent to Broken Spoke, Texas, to live with their maternal grandparents while their dad goes to work in Dubai and their mom sells their New York apartment. Corrinne is not at all thrilled to give up her lifestyle of dressage and dieting in exchange for cowboy hats and carbohydrates, but she reluctantly learns the ways of the recessionista, trading thousand-dollar dresses at Barney’s for $24.99 versions at no-name department stores, workouts at the gym for shoveling manure at a local stable, and house parties [End Page 374] with fruity cocktails for field parties with keg beer. She doesn’t transition with good grace, but the locals forgive her snotty attitude for reasons of their own—sweet, affable Kitsy wants to move to New York herself one day, emo rocker Rider wants access to Corrinne’s music-industry connections, and laid-back good guy Bubby just likes her as much as his dad once liked her mom. Corrinne’s resilience rings true, especially when she applies her Manhattan party-planner and charity-gala skill sets to taking the profile of the local rodeo up a notch, but her total personality makeover, where she recognizes the superficiality of her New York friendships, drives a stick-shift pickup with more excitement than irony, and learns to value the simple things like pancakes and late-night Sonic runs, is a little too quick for credibility, especially as Heasley has taken pains to establish the depth of Corrinne’s immersion in her Gossip Girl lifestyle. However, the rich city girl adapting to poor small-town life has as perennial an interest factor as transitions in the opposite direction, so those who are recessionistas themselves as well as those who live the Broken Spoke way in good times and bad will find characters to relate to here. Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois