Ros Demir Is Not the One

August 15, 2024
A teen carries out a plan she devised years before for social climbing. Rosaline Demir has long yearned to go to Pine Bay, a pricey resort in Maine where many of the kids from her high school in Connecticut vacation. So she makes sure to get invited to join her best friend Eleanor's family when they finally go there. Eleanor is straightforward and kind. Ros is myopically focused on her dream of meeting a hot guy so she'll have a better chance in her run for homecoming princess. It's initially hard to like Ros as she makes excuses for things she does that hurt her friend, but a compelling backstory involving an earlier best friendship that soured will soften readers' feelings toward her. Ros' experience of her mixed heritage--her dad is from T�rkiye, and her mother is Scottish American--have left her feeling an outsider in her "super-white town," lending her further vulnerability and explaining her need for validation. Though Ros succeeds in acquiring a lovely boyfriend, Aydin, whose parents are also Turkish, her plans go awry upon their return to school, resulting in an unexpected and satisfying conclusion. Diversity in the supporting cast rounds out this ode to self-awareness: Ros' friend Ben, who's gay, and Chloe, who's also biracial (Korean and white) but has a different social experience from Ros. Ben and Eleanor are cued white. An engaging story with a rightfully complex protagonist.(Fiction. 13-18)

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August 19, 2024
High school junior Rosaline Demir feels like her reputation still hasn’t recovered from nasty rumors spread about her in eighth grade. She endeavors to change, putting into motion a yearslong plan to dazzle everyone when she returns to school in the fall. All she must do is meet a handsome guy and make him fall in love with her, thus guaranteeing her a place on the
homecoming court and a fast track toward popularity. Tagging along with her kindly white-cued best friend Eleanor on her family’s vacation to the luxurious summer resort of Pine Bay, Ros determines to make her scheme a reality. Meeting handsome Turkish American Aydin gives her hope. But even as her imagined future begins coming to fruition, she realizes that getting what she wants might come at the cost of other people’s feelings. Debut author Brittan gives Ros a satisfying character arc that’s influenced by her desire to fit in and her struggles reconciling with her Scottish and Turkish ancestry as someone living in a majority-white town. Compassionate text highlights character flaws while encouraging growth and deftly tackles issues surrounding islamophobia and self-esteem. Ages 12–up. Agent: Alexander Slater, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc.

September 1, 2024
Grades 9-12 Ros Demir has a plan. When her best friend's family invites her to spend a week with them at a fancy retreat center the summer before junior year, she knows this is the perfect time to find a boyfriend and become popular. In her single-minded pursuit of this goal, though, she manages to alienate her best friend, realienate her ex-best friend, and land perfectly in the middle of someone else's teen romance. Ros can be selfish and doesn't always think about how her actions will affect those around her, and this gets her in plenty of trouble with her friends and love interest, Aydin. The book is a refreshing look at a teen girl who doesn't have it all together, makes mistakes, and learns from them. Ros and Aydin are Turkish American, and Brittan explores their differing relationships with their Turkish identity with nuance. A rushed ending finds Ros redeemed, but more time spent on her mindset change and repentant actions would have made for a stronger conclusion.

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November 22, 2024

Gr 9 Up-Ros Demir, 16, can dive into a cold lake in the dark on a dare but lacks the confidence to ask Lydia, her best friend since childhood, why she spread the nasty falsehood at summer camp that froze their relationship two years ago. She's alienated her current bestie, Eleanor, by planting an impulsive kiss on Eleanor's secret crush to make someone else jealous. This likable debut features a heroine who's almost as hard to take as the wealthy Connecticut suburbanites who make Ros uncomfortable, right down to the ripped jean cut-offs and crop top she wears for a cookout at Pine Bay-a fancy resort where the dress code dictates white capris and pink or blue polos. Ros just wants to get ahead in this stuffy community, until newcomer Aydin Muhtar makes her question why. He embraces his Turkish identity with a love of its cuisine and a facility for its language, while she's less secure in her own heritage, which is a mix of Scottish and Turkish. She tweezes her thick "Turkish" eyebrows, for example, unconvinced by her family of their beauty. The settings of this elite culture-Pine Bay and Bardet, the private high school where Ros must run a successful campaign to win the coveted fall homecoming queen title-drag the plot of this otherwise thoughtful character study of Ros, who becomes her own person as she notices and begins to appreciate the individuality of those around her. VERDICT Friendship and misunderstanding go hand in hand in this layered character study of a teen who longs to be accepted.-Georgia Christgau

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