Her story. Her choice.
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Ivy is a sixteen-year-old girl from Paris, TX who just discovered she’s pregnant. She didn’t even know that was possible based on what happened to her. Now she has to figure out a way to get to Oregon where her grandmother lives so she can get an abortion since it’s not legal in Texas. Once everyone accidentally finds out about the pregnancy, Ivy is more than ready to leave the town behind. With her newish boyfriend they head off on a road trip to fight for her right to choose.
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This is such an important YA book that is more prevalent now than ever. As a Texan it’s hard to live in a state that makes decisions about our bodies. Ivy’s story, and so many more like hers, are happening all over this country. Stories like this bring a light to their experiences, when most of the time, they’re not talked about. Ivy’s support system in her family and relationship was strong, but her friendships were weak and that is a very honest portrayal about what many go through, I’m sure. The audiobook was phenomenally narrated.

CW: abortion, sexual abuse, parent with cancer, slut-shaming, homophobia, bullying

This was a heavy book and had a lot going on, almost to the point of too much going on.

I appreciate the premise of this book, with current politics what they are. However, I thought the main character was a little immature for her age and also had a hard time believing that her boyfriend would be that supportive in light of what was happening. He seemed like a unicorn.

When 16 year old Ivy becomes pregnant after a terrible date, she is devastated. She sets off on a cross country road trip with her boyfriend, Lorenzo to seek an abortion. Along the way she learns of other women's stories, who were in a similar position as here once upon a time.

I listened to this on audio, and the narrator did such an incredible job with this story. I thought this had an important message about women's bodies, and their right to make their own decisions. At times, it could be a bit preachy, but I still enjoyed the overall message. I loved Ivy as a main character, she was very relatable and easy to root for. You really felt for Ivy as you read her story, and all the judgement she endured. I loved the support system Ivy had in her brother, mother and her boyfriend, Lorenzo. The relationship between Lorenzo and Ivy was very sweet, and I loved how vocal he was about his support of her.

I hope that this is a book that will be included in curriculum around the world. I think it has an important message to share with the world.

What an absolutely poignant book in a time of increased lockdown on women’s rights as many US states have been fighting to take away the rights and autonomy that women have had over their own bodies. Ivy is a young woman in Texas who finds herself pregnant after a violation of her body that nobody knows about. When she seeks to end the pregnancy and her peers find out, the backlash is swift and all encompassing. Everyone assumes that her boyfriend, Lorenzo, is the father, and Ivy won’t give them the power of the truth of her situation. Thankfully, she lives in a household where her mother and extended family are pro-choice. Ivy’s decision is not questioned, but fully supported. When her whole town turns against her, she finds what little solace there is in the unwavering support of her mother and brother, and even Lorenzo.

Lorenzo is a young man who has suffered through terrible loss. He’s an incredible support to Ivy and stands behind her without question. Her body is her own to govern and decide and to him, it is worth risking everything he knows to help support the young woman he loves. Their romance is pure and sweet. While they are not without their trials, her choice being ]the toughest things they’ve faced in their short relationship, what they have together is unlike anything either of them has experienced before. Together they embark on an adventure to take back their lives, their relationships, and their autonomy as they make their way to Oregon where Ivy’s family lives and abortion is legal.

This book is so incredibly timely and it’s just bursting with big emotions and deep, heavy feelings. It really truly highlights what women have lost and the terrifying social and legal backlash they, and those who help them, face if they make the choice to end their pregnancies. Ivy is one of the lucky ones. She, her family, and Lorenzo, all have a safe way to escape in the end and to make lives for themselves somewhere where women do have the rights and freedoms to govern their bodies as they see fit. It was a beautiful, yet simultaneously devastating read. It packs a punch, starts a greater conversation, and hopefully makes an impact to sway the minds of those who stand firm against a woman’s right to choose, or those who are suffering silently, not knowing a way to escape their situation.

There are so few titles out there that I’ve encountered that handle such difficult, but important topics. It’s great to see more literature out there to help create a dialogue around women’s choice and autonomy. It’s something that we can’t forget and we can’t let slide. This is an important work and should be showcased.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

This book was about an unplanned pregnancy and I ended up listening on audio. Should have DNF’d. However, thank you to NetGalley & Random House for the ARC. Appreciated.

Grim given the current political climate but also very timely and powerful as readers would expect from this author.

If you think you know exactly what this book is going to be, you are right, and also expect to be completely surprised! An "abortion road trip love story" that hits on all points. Throughout history, one in four women have sought to end a pregnancy, whether it was legal or not, through whatever means necessary. Ivy knows what she needs to do, and has the loving support of her friends and family, and the means to travel. However, the rumors quickly spread around Paris, Texas, and it doesn't take long for Ivy to lose so much of what she loved about her life there. Caletti weaves in stories of other women and the choices they've made, or the choices they were never given, in order to give readers a more complete understanding of the issues surrounding reproductive rights.

Deb Caletti has another winner on her hands with this book. Ivy has a plan for her life - a plan that does not include a baby. So when she finds out she is pregnant the decision is easy. Only one problem, she lives in Texas where abortions are illegal. It is the end of the school year, and so she decides to go visit her grandmother in Oregon where she will have the procedure done. It is the road trip of a lifetime - seeing the country, and hearing all the secret stories of the women she sees along the way. A beautiful story of body autonomy and the secrets and shame women have had to deal with for centuries.

Heavy-handed with the message - how many people need to pop up to share their secret? - but it’s an important story.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Childrens/ Labyrinth Road for this ARC in exchange for an honest review**

DNF at 38%.

This book is about 16-year-old Ivy who finds out that she is pregnant just before her junior year is over. When her pregnancy test falls out of her backpack during class one day, suddenly everyone knows. Because of their reactions, she skips the last few days of school while coming up with a plan about what to do about her situation. She is also upset at how judgmental her friends, Faith and Peyton, are about the whole thing.

Ivy decides that she wants an abortion, but she can't get one in her home state of Texas, so she and her boyfriend, Lorenzo, plan a trip to Oregon where her grandmother lives and she can get the procedure done. They don't just make it a journey straight there, though. They turn it into a vacation with a bunch of places they want to stop at on the way.

This book started out promising, but when the actual trip began, it became kind of boring, and I couldn't see myself reading any further.

I think I put off reviewing this book for so long, even though I read it in October, because this book made me feel such conflicting and personal feelings. I think it handled the topics of abortion and religion well, though a bit heavy-handedly. This is marketed heavily as a tale about abortion, but I think this overshadows how important self-discovery is to this story. The main character is trying to figure out how she feels, where she stands, and what she feels is wrong/right in the world, and I think that's why I enjoyed this. Being alienated by a community you were apart of can be debilitating, and I appreciated how raw and real the main character felt. She wasn't perfect, but she tried her best to carve out a place for herself despite the hostilities around her. I appreciate that the author chose to write on a controversial topic for teens. I feel like a lot of the times teens are told or taught how to feel by their parents and aren't given the time/freedom to really think about their own opinions. Books like these that help teens think about what they believe in are important and are necessary, whether they agree or disagree with the author's stances. I've never read a Deb Caletti book before, so I'm interested in picking up some of her backlist to see if she's tackled any more topics like this in her novels.

I have to say even for teens I think this one has too much teen drama. But maybe that's what teens want to read now days.

Choice. There’s so many emotions and even, now, legislature tied up in one little word. Plan A is a BEAUTIFUL exploration of one girl’s choice to terminate her unwanted pregnancy.

Ivy is pregnant, and it’s not by her boyfriend of one month, Lorenzo. Complicated… and living in Texas where even her Uber driver could get sued for driving her to an abortion complicates things more.

Ivy is nothing if not loved and supported by the people most important to her, so her mom agrees to letting Lorenzo and Ivy go on a road trip, with the end result being an abortion at her grandma’s in Oregon.

The book is pretty stream of consciousness, and we get all of Ivy’s thoughts, appreciative to apocalyptic to intrusive. She feels an overflowing of love from everyone who matters, but also is really shunned and treated poorly by her neighbors and even best friends, and it takes her time to come to terms with her lack of agency over her body, even as she’s on her way to make her own choice.

She also, along the way, feels a sense of kindred growing between herself and all the women who have lived before her: women who wanted sex and women who didn’t, ones who gave birth and ones who didn’t, and women all along the spectrum who were told what to do with their bodies.

The love and sisterhood meant so much to me in this story, even as the unfairness of it all made me feel gut punched. I teared up, laughed out loud, and am leaving this book more grateful than I went into it. It’s so incredibly special!! and Ivy is an amazing and realistic character.

This book is so worth the read - a multigenerational family book club reading this would be THE CUTEST

“That cross on my locker—it feels like an anchor pulling me down, down, into a permanent humiliation.”

This book was transformative and heartbreaking as we follow Ivy and her decision to abort her pregnancy. I am a firm believer in Pro-choice and am so ecstatic that there is finally a story out there that talks about the big “taboo” of abortions. Yes it’s a tough subject. Yes it’s a brutally conflicting choice. But NEVER should we condemn a woman for whatever choice she makes. I am happy that this book was written as it brings much awareness to something people tag so much negativity with. Especially for young readers - to help give them the opportunity and encouragement to be further informed about choices like these.

“The idea of this being one understandable experience will absolutely and without a doubt disappear. There, what I’ve done is against the law, and immoral.”

Thank you @tbrbeyondtours for including me in this tour!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyASbNHA72X/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

A really poignant perspective that is desperately needed in today's climate to help remove the stigma around abortion access. While this is fiction, it's also a real story/reality for many people.

I can appreciate the premise of this book because in our current climate, with the overturning of Roe v Wade, its a reality many women and even teen girls, like the main character here will face. However, as a story this read as a lofty premise supported by a pretty mediocre story. The main character felt obnoxiously immature for a 16 year old, her "love" interest felt obnoxiously mature for a teen himself, and so much of the story is carried by the premise and not any actual storytelling. At times it felt like the author took planned parenthood stats and dropped them into the confines of a story in the most inauthentic and forced ways. Also, the way that the Main character became pregnant was a cop out. It actually would have been more poignant for her pregnancy to be the result of the teen love and hormones as opposed to SA. It felt like her pregnancy being a result of SA was done to make her being pregnant more digestible but that thinking runs counter to the entire premise of the book. Ultimately this story tried to do a lot, did none of it particulary well, but overall I still felt like the premise IS important.

Plan A is a timely novel set in pro-life Texas. It answers the questions" What happens when you become pregnant in a state in which abortion is illegal?" and "How far will you go for the ones you love?" I love how this story destigmatizes abortion. Not every pregnancy is cut and dry, as far is what is best for the woman and man women have secrets. This book shows young adults, that whatever they choose, it will be okay. A powerful story, with strong characters.

3.5 stars - Thank you to NetGalley for a copy in exchange for a review

PLAN A details the story of Ivy, a 17 year old girl who needs an abortion in a state where it is illegal. Along the way, Ivy heard the stories of other women who were in her place. These connections are woven beautifully into the story, and it looks at reproductive issues from all angles. I really enjoyed this book, seeing Ivy process her emotions and seeing her learn about how other women have been in her place.

Five Reasons to Read Plan A by Deb Caletti

Her Body, Her Choice - this book discusses bodily autonomy and various ways in which misogyny tries to claw rights away from folks looking for health care. Given the state of things, choice is a right that needs to be fought for.

Road Trip - by coincidence, I was also on a road trip while reading this book, and can confirm that the jubilant aspects of being on the road (places with fun names, spotting things you don't see every day) are present and serve as fun reminders of past travels. ALSO! Ivy and Lorenzo visited Dinosaur National Park on their trip, and we happened to stop in the Dinosaur Capital of the World on ours.

Pancakes - this is such a little detail, but road snacks and the type of food one gets during an actual driving break can change your whole mood. Out of all the foods I could have picked (Mountain Dew, Red Vines, all the amazing sounding stuff Mase made before/after the trip) I picked pancakes because on this trip one of our hotels had an automatic pancake maker.

Love Story - yes, this is an Abortion Road Trip Love Story, and though the love between Ivy and Lorenzo is new, we get to see it blossom, and there is so much love that surrounds them. Sometimes it is in words or actions or just being present, and despite her small-minded town being full of people who don't have it in them to open their eyes fully, that doesn't mean the whole world is against her.

Why is history so important? - It repeats itself, especially when it is left unchecked. What you are facing has been faced before and so many people have made it through. In order to make things better for those who come after you, you need to stand up for your own human rights.