Young Jane Young is a standalone novel. I would categorize it as Women's Fiction.

The book is divided into 5 parts with different narrators for each part.

The book is basically the story of Aviva Grossman (a young Jewish intern) who finds herself in a Monica Lewinsky type situation.

The first narrator was Rachel, Aviva's mother. This part of the story takes place in Florida. I don't read about that many Jewish characters. So I loved that Rachel and Aviva were Jewish. And I absolutely loved all of the Jewish references.

The narrator of part two is Jane. I didn't realize that there would be more than one narrator. But I definitely enjoyed that the story was told this way. Jane is an event planner. And I really enjoyed this part of the story.

Part three is narrated by Ruby (Jane's daughter). And this part is mainly told through emails, which was interesting.

Part four was narrated by Embeth, the Congressman's wife. Aviva interned for her husband. I didn't think that I would like reading her POV. But it was so enjoyable.

The final part was narrated by Aviva and it tied together the whole story. There was something done in this last section that I found unnecessary. It kept saying "if you'd do this turn to page 45 or if you'd do this turn to page 80". Also there was a lot about the past, when I really wanted to read about what was happening in the present. However, that was just a small part of the story. And eventually the book did focus on the present, which was great.

Overall, this was a very interesting read. I liked the story and various POVs. It was interesting to see how a different Monica Lewinsky story could play out. I enjoyed it.

I was a big fan of Gabrielle Zevin's novel The Storied Life of AJ Fikry and was excited to read Young Jane Young. It was totally different than her previous novel but once again, I was riveted by her characters. The story was captivating and the characters were so interesting. I loved how each section is told from the perspective of a different character, and as the novel unfolds, the reader gets a clearer picture of what really happened. Her characters are endearing and even the not so admirable characters come off as flawed yet human. While the ending didn't make me like the novel less, I wish that there was a little more closure. All in all, a great read and I look forward to her next book!

Aviva Grossman is another young intern whose head is turned by her charming, likable, charismatic, handsome boss, Congressman Levin. Aviva and Congressman Levin begin an affair while she is a staffer on his campaign, after having been neighbours during Aviva's youth. Aviva falls for him and her mother just doesn't understand. After an accident, Aviva's life turns into a media circus and she just wants to get away from it all. So she moves herself to Maine and starts her own business.

Aviva, and the other women who help tell her story, and their own, are feisty, empowered, funny. honest, and real. This was my first introduction to Gabrielle Zevin but I'm certain it won't be my last encounter with her writing. I LOVED this book.

I received a NetGalley copy of this book and am voluntarily providing a review.

Ok. If you picked this book up because you are looking for the charm, the heartwarming embrace of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - this is not that. I'm not saying it isn't good in it's own right, but it won't give you "all the feels" that her previous book did.

That said.

This is the story of a young woman, Aviva Grossman, who ends up having a torrid affair with a congressman; who is married, older, oh, and formerly her parent's neighbour. Told through alternating perspectives (each part is narrated by a different character), we get to see what happened and how it affected certain people.

There are things I really enjoyed about this book:

alternating points of view - check.
choose your own adventure section - check (I actually wish the entire book had been like this).
smart, strong, intelligent, well rounded characters - check.

The strength of this book is really in it's characters.
Aviva's mother, Rachel Grossman; the Jewish mom who knew what was happening, tried to help her daughter, and ended up being completely shut out of her daughter's life.

Jane Young, the new incarnation that was Aviva Grossman. A wedding planner, a mother of one, and happy in a life that doesn't allow for mistakes.

Ruby Young, Jane Young's daughter. A 13 year old who is smart, and funny, and has such a wonderful little personality - she is completely blindsided when she discovers that her mother isn't Jane Young, but is really Aviva Grossman. Determined to find her father (convinced it must be Congressman Levin) Ruby sets off from Maine to Florida to get to the bottom of things.

Embeth Levin, wife of the congressman - 13 years later. She is forced to come face to face with her husband's indiscretion when she meets Ruby Young. Bringing the events of 13 years ago to the forefront, Embeth does what she has done best throughout the course of her marriage - she stands by her man.

Aviva Grossman. Told in a "choose your own adventure" style chapter - we get to finally see what happened to Aviva as a young intern. We get to see the decisions she made, the advice she decided to ignore and we finally get to see her move forward, put her past behind her and show her daughter that you can overcome the past.

What I found was lacking in this book was actually ... words. I wish this book was about 50 pages longer. I think it could have used the alternating perspectives more - jumping back and forth as things developed. We could have had the first part told not simply by Rachel Grossman, but also by Embeth Levin and Aviva's perspectives. It would have created the depth to the story that I found lacking. I also think the "choose your own adventure" would have played really well with ALL the characters - why did Rachel decide to do one thing and not another? Why did Embeth decided to treat Rachel a certain way? By having options to what the character could do - but moving forward with what she actually did - you get to learn about more about their psyche.

Otherwise, a super quick, enjoyable, well written story. I'd be happy to recommend it to friends and family.

Solid 3.5 star read.

Shades of a former president and a certain intern! The lesson here is be sure the sins of your youth will come back to haunt you in this digital age. What a great cast of characters, especially young Ruby. Love this book...now going off to read previous books by this author.

Thank you to publisher and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Please see my full review on Goodreads.

I read this book in a day as it was fast-paced and cleverly written. The story focuses on the aftermath of an affair between a 20-year-old intern and a married Congressman old enough to know better. The scandal results in the protagonist Aviva Grossman losing her good name and basically being branded with a big letter A. The story is to,d from multiple perspectives and POV's. The heart of it lies at the injustices between men and women and the strength needed by women to persevere. I loved this story. It had a feel good vibe that left me silently yelling "go girl!!" at the end.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I don't read a lot of adult books; I'm more of a Young Adult novel reader. It's mostly because I'm worried I will be bored or the language would be too overbearing in adult books. But I was too intrigued when I read this book's synopsis to not pick this up. Plus, I've been eyeing other Gabrielle Zevin books for a while now and a lot of reviewers I follow love her work. (She also writes YA which definitely helped with my decision.)

Young Jane Young is about a series of women affected by a political scandal. A twenty year old women has an affair with a prominent political figure and this story tells of the effects this scandal has had on the woman herself (Aviva/Jane), her daughter (Ruby), her mother and the wife of the politician.

I have never read anything like this book and I loved every second of reading it. At first I thought we were going to alternate POVs between Aviva and her mom, so I was a little disappointed when that didn't happen (because I loved Aviva's POV). But I got over it quickly simply because everyone else's POV was so interesting! I loved that Ruby's, Jane's daughter, POV was told through emails to her pen pal and that there was a "choose your own adventure" section that told the story of Aviva's affair. I loved Aviva's story so much because even though her reputation was completely ruined, she still found a way to have a life and I found it so inspiring. This book had a very powerful feminist voice in it, which I also loved. In books and TV, you rarely see the aftereffects of a political scandal in this way so this book was quite unique. I do have to say that I found the ending to be quite unsatisfying, but that's the only thing that I disliked about Young Jane Young.

Highly recommend if you are looking for a political book with feminist themes that is easy to read. If you are like me and love character centric stories and are looking for good adult reads, check out Young Jane Young when it comes out on August 22!

This was an interesting read for me. Normally, I would never pick up this book, but I received an email from NetGalley pushing it, so I figured I'd give it a chance. I read enough to be able to appreciate good storytelling, and this was no exception. Sadly, it just wasn't the story for me.

Told through four/five POVs, Zevin spills the details and aftermath of an unfortunate political coupling in the early 2000's in a rather unique and compelling way. I loved how everything came out in the end, particularly through the Pick Your Own Adventure format (that was a small touch of genius). The characters were likeable, however some of the Jewish tones went right over my head, not being familiar with a lot of the phrases and items mentioned.

What kept me from properly enjoying the book was I felt mislead by the description of the book itself. Childish to think, perhaps, but this was not what I expected to read. I've never read Zevin's work before, and the description led me to believe this was a story about a young girl who is trying to put herself together after a tawdry affair and has to deal with a surprise pregnancy as a result of it, then later runs for mayor as way to say "I can beat this, you can't keep me down." It made it seem as though this might be something in the vein of Sophie Kinsella, but this wasn't. While it is a masterclass in story telling, this wasn't exciting. At times I found it a bit dull and too everyday like that I didn't escape my own problems, which is why I read in the first place. To escape.

Overall, it was a good book, just not one for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for my copy.

This book tells the story of Aviva Grossman a 20 year old political studies student who interns for a Congressman who happens to be her former neighbour. They begin an affair and this story underlines the fallout on their lives after the affair. Aviva has unfortunately detailed the affair in what she thought was an anonymous blog. Aviva is depicted as the slut and responsible for the enticing of this much older man.

This story is told from the POV of four characters.
1. Jane Young an event planner who has re-invented herself and is about to run for town Mayor.
2. Ruby Jane's daughter who is pen pal to a girl in Indonesia. Her story is partly told in email form to her pen-pal. I loved this character. She is a little quirky, little nerdy but ballsy girl.
3. Rachel Aviva's Mum who is a vice principle and is devoted to her daughter and her best friend Roz.
4. Embeth the dutiful wife of the Congressman who stands by her man.

Obviously there are comparisons to the Clinton/Lewinsky affair which is mentioned in the book. The slut shaming of these young women who entice the men is power and then get all the blame is paramount to this story.

I really enjoyed this book and liked Zevin's writing style. The ending seemed a little abrupt though.

Unlike other reviewers I didn't particularly like this book. The story focuses on the viewpoint of three different woman and the young daughter of one of the woman. First there is Aviva who has an affair with the congressman she is interning for. Then you have her mother Rachel and Aviva's daughter Ruby. Lastly is Embeth who is the wife of the congressman. I liked the idea of telling a story where a character makes a naïve mistake that affects their entire future and having to overcome that. . I didn't enjoy the different writing styles that were used to differentiate between characters. The first third of the book also seemed very choppy to me, jumping back and forth between time lines.
Have you ever had someone tell you a story and they seem to randomly go on and on and the whole time you wonder when they are going to stop and take a breathe. This is the feeling I got in the very first chapter when we first meet Rachel. In general I found the characters to be unlikeable and not very relatable. I just found this book too slow and lacking in drama.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the chance to read this electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.
“Young Jane Young” is the new novel from Gabrielle Nevin, the author of “The Storied Life of A.J Fikry”. I adored “Storied Life” and, to be honest, it would’ve been impossible to write a follow-up novel that would have settled anywhere close to it. That being said, “Young Jane Young” (although, as suspected, does not come close to “Storied Life”) is definitely a good read with a passionate and powerful lead character.
In “Young Jane Young”, twenty-year old Aviva Goodman is working as an intern in a Florida Congressman’s office. Smart and talented, Aviva is loving her job and looks forward to a career in politics. However, she soon makes a life-changing choice- she falls into a months-long affair with the married Congressman. Her career and her reputation are in shambles, and she is forced to give up her old life (and her old name) in order to start anew.
Jane Young is someone who made a mistake as a young person- a mistake that has followed her around and changed the course of her life. Relatable, powerful and funny, Jane Young/Aviva is admirable and is one hell of a main character. This story is told from the standpoint of several women- Aviva, of course, but we also get to see the novel from the standpoint of Ruby (Aviva’s daughter), Rachel (Aviva’s mother) and Embeth (the Congressman’s wife). Each character plays an important part in the choices Aviva makes.
This story is well written and we know Ms. Nevin has finely tuned writing chops (she made this evident in her incredible debut novel). The female characters are all strong, passionate and flawed that stand true to their characters and morals throughout the novel. Although politics are rampant in this novel’s plotline, there is actually quite a small amount of political jargon (and thank goodness for it!) and this makes the novel more enjoyable. I find Jane to be a little less of a kindred spirit than A.J Fikry was (after all, his passion was books) but I thoroughly enjoyed the character of Ruby, in all of her fiery, uber-intelligent, quirky ways.
Not a bad follow up to “Storied Life”, and there a few “deep thinking” points in the novel (the sexism that exists in politics, for one) without any political agenda being forced down a reader’s throat. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide what’s important and this makes the novel either really heavy or funny and light, depending on where you choose to focus. A great follow up novel, “Young Jane Young” is for all of us- the ragtag misfits who don’t fit in, those who are looking for a life transformation, and those who simply want a character they can get behind.

Young Jane Young didn't knock my socks off but it was entertaining in a smart kind of way. Jane Young used to be Aviva Grossman, but in her early twenties she was involved with a congressman in Florida a la Monica Lewinsky, and the scandal went viral. She then reinvented herself as an event planner named Jane Young in a small town in Maine. Zevin tells Aviva/Jane's story from a few points of view, including her mother, daughter and the congressman's wife. There is a lot of humour in how these characters are depicted, but each of them is more than a stereotype -- far from perfect, but understandable and even likeable. And in the end this is what Zevin manages well in Young Jane Young -- she gives a human face to a scandal without making it overly maudlin, apologetic or trashy. At the very end, Zevin descends into a bit of a polemic about where feminism stands when it comes to this type of sex scandal. It's delivered with a light touch, but I appreciated the nudge to give some thought to the issue. Entertaining but not silly. I liked his one and recommend it to anyone looking for a lighter but smart read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story .. told from multiple viewpoints, it is a story about resilience, survival and living with your choices. As I found in the author's previous book, the writing style was captivating and satisfying an the story flowed with such ease .. I didn't want to put the book down or want it to end. I've read some people who say the book's audience is strictly female but as a middle aged male I can say unequivocally that this book hit the mark for me. Highly recommended if you like good, engaging fiction with a message

I was pleasantly surprised with Young Jane Young. It was engaging, funny, compelling, moving. The first thing that struck me was that it began from the point of view of a woman in her 60s. "Well, that's refreshing," I thought. Most other books are focused on younger women. I was in for a surprise. Future sections of the book come from different perspectives, but all around a singular event: a scandalous relationship reminiscent of the Lewinsky-Clinton affair. Zevin does a good job of making each section stand out. One character's point of view is written in the choose-your-own-adventure format. And another's is a series of emails. Zevin puts it all together gracefully so that, in the end, you love every female character you've met and you want to put your arms around them and bring them happiness.

Aviva Grossman interns for her local and very married congressman in Florida; that is, until their affair is uncovered. The congressman’s career continues almost unscathed, his wife standing by his side, but Aviva’s political aspirations are completely crushed by the scandal. The story then fast-forwards a decade – Aviva has moved to Maine, legally changed her name to Jane Young, and is now a single mother of a ten-year-old daughter and with a successful business as an event planner. A couple of years later she is convinced to run for mayor against a man whose wedding she had planned. They are locked in a kind of political battle of mutually assured destruction - he knows her secret but she also knows one about his wife. But he isn’t the only one who discovers the truth about Jane’s past and her chance for the political career she has always wanted may be derailed by someone much closer to home.

Young Jane Young by author Gabrielle Zevin is a tale about double standards and second chances. Told with empathy and humour, the story switches between the perspectives of several women: Rachel Grossman, Aviva Grossman’s mother, Aviva/Jane, her daughter, Ruby, and Embeth, the congressman’s wife. The plot moves back and forth in perspective and time. There are, as well. some very interesting changes in style - in Ruby’s case, for example, we learn much of her story through emails to her Indonesian pen pal and, as the story heads toward its denouement, much of it is told as a ‘choose your own adventure’.

Most of the men in this story are scoundrels but they are, for the most part, likable scoundrels. But this book is not about men or even politics. It is for and about women providing an entertaining, rather humorous but gentle poke at the double standard that still exists between the genders from the perspective of several generations of strong women. Loved it!

4.5

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

I read an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair review. The book is the story of Aviva Grossman/Jane Young and it is told from the point of view of her mother Rachel, her daughter Ruby, Aviva /Jane and Embeth Levin the wife of the man whom Aviva/Jane had an affair with changing all of their lives. I like all of the women in the book, they are strong, brave, and while they make mistakes they grow from them. I think my favourite part of the book is Ruby’s adventure with Embeth which leads to a reconciliation between Aviva/Jane and her mother. The different points of view add much to the telling of the story giving it depth. I could relate to a number of the experiences of the women in the book as a daughter, as a mother and as a friend. I would recommend this book as I enjoyed reading it very much.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

The Goodreads blurb pretty much describes the whole plot, although thankfully I hadn't read it. The narrative is told from the perspectives of Aviva, the intern who has a sexual relationship with Congressman Levin; Rachel, Aviva's mother; Embeth, Levin's wife; and Ruby, Aviva's daughter, who has known her mother only as Jane. The various narrative voices are different from one another and I particularly enjoyed Ruby, despite the fact that I found her 9/10 year old voice unconvincingly mature and her 13 year old voice rather immature. All the women, and that includes Rachel's mother and her friend Roz, shared a very dry humour.

If I had to criticize, I would say that the author didn't make me see what Aviva got out of her relationship with the Congressman - it was described in the "Make Your Own Adventure" format, which worked well, but which was presented in retrospect, once Aviva/Jane had brought a more mature perspective on things. The section from Embeth's point of view was very funny, but the El Mate elements confused me - were they a symptom of her cancer? The perspective I enjoyed least was that of Rachel - the light tone seemed inappropriate for, e.g. the moment she sees her daughter and Levin exit a room and realizes the affair is continuing.

Overall recommended, with many strong female characters, although (now I think of it) men come out of it uniformly badly, from Rachel's husband to the Rabbi to Levin to Wes to Jorge.

I very much enjoyed this book. I have some of the author's works on my to read list, and when I saw this title it seemed very appealing. I enjoyed the way it was told, the characters, the topics - and I'd love to read more about them as well.

I will likely suggest this for my book club, as well, as I think it would make for a good discussion and others would enjoy it.