Immaculate - Hardcover

Detweiler, Katelyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0451469623 ISBN 13: 9780451469625

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2015

Synopsis

Mina is seventeen. A virgin. And pregnant.

Mina is top of her class, girlfriend to the most ambitious guy in school, able to reason and study her way through anything. But when she suddenly finds herself pregnant—despite having never had sex—her orderly world collapses. Almost nobody believes Mina’s claims of virginity. Her father assumes that her boyfriend is responsible; her boyfriend believes she must have cheated on him. As news of Mina’s story spreads, there are those who brand her a liar. There are those who brand her a heretic. And there are those who believe that miracles are possible—and that Mina’s unborn child could be the greatest miracle of all.

About this title

About the Author

Katelyn Detweiler (http://katelyndetweiler.com/) was born and raised in Pennsylvania—in a small town much like Mina’s—living in a centuries-old farmhouse surrounded by fields and woods. After graduating from Penn State University, she made the move to New York City, where she is a literary agent representing books for all ages and across all genres. Katelyn currently lives, works, and writes in Brooklyn. Follow her @katedetweiler

Reviews

Gr 9 Up—Seventeen-year-old Mina is in a serious but not sexually active relationship with her popular boyfriend Nate. After a strange encounter with a mysterious woman, Mina discovers she is pregnant. Maintaining that she's a virgin and the baby's conception is a miracle, Mina cannot explain her divine situation. Her incredible story earns judgement and exclusion from family and friends and eventually lands her in the center of a terrible media storm. Obsessed with protecting her child, Mina maintains her faith in its miraculous nature. The dynamic characters move the action forward, relatable in their various reactions to Mina's story. The unusual premise compels readers to want to know how it all ends, but the drama feels tidied up quickly, and the ending is anticlimactic. More questions than answers are provided about the nature of the pregnancy and the fate of the child, but the narrative is inclusive of multiple types of explanations; Mina explores stories of miraculous conceptions in various religions, and her message is more about faith in general than a specific set of beliefs. VERDICT A unique page-turner mixing humor and heart, this is a thought-provoking take on miracles and motherhood.—Whitney LeBlanc, Staten Island Academy, NY

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451469623
• ISBN 13: 9780451469625
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464