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Rating: 
Summary: Good Story, But Essential Moral Left Out: Wake Up Joy Nichol
Review: After reading some of the reveiws listed I had to give my review. It seems that the major complaint was that it talks about things like drugs and sex and has a downer ending. This is life....and did you read the ending the same way I did? I didn't see it as a downer but as a way to start over for the main character. The book is a fast read...great for vacation reading (I read it, aloud during a 7 hour car trip last summer). I find the characters very real and believable.
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Summary: Captivating and extremely accurate.
Review: Coming from Palos Verdes, my first reason for picking up this book was to see how accurate Nicholson portrayed the community. I was thrilled to read her description of the town, from its screeching peacocks to the rolling waves. Medina's coming of age in a scene so different from the one she was used to in the Midwest was captivating and I couldn't put the book down. This is a quick read, and a book I have gone back to many times when I am looking for something to hold my attention and make me think.
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Summary: What a Misleading Cover!
Review: I picked up this book thinking, "Oh cool, a book about a girl in a group with guys surfing!" I soon found out that was not the case, or not really the case. This book astonished me and made me thank myself for all of the good things I have in my life. The story started out fairly normal, and me thinking "Everything will end up happy-go-lucky" boy, oh boy was I wrong. It was a rollercoaster, everytime something good would happen, it would scaled downward. The ending is very surprising, yet depressing at the same time! I just kept reading it because you wanted to find out what else could go wrong in Medina's life!
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Summary: Paging Holden Caulfield...
Review: Oddly enough, this book felt like an update to Sallinger's classic, with a west coast twist. Nicholson's Medina is younger than Sallinger's Holden (and a girl to boot), but the alienation and wry powers of observation are there. The author managed to get a feel of what the Palos Verdes area (and lifestyle) is like, but as a previous reviewer mentioned, the relationship with the twin brother and their self-imploding mother is a bit too much to be taken seriously...An amusing read with bits of dream-like descriptions scattered throughout.
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Summary: Tears and Revelation
Review: The first 2/3 of this book were intriguing and unique, although not entirely amazing. The last 1/3, however, was incredible. I had to pause now and then because of the tears in my eyes. The book was so meaningful and heartfelt without the effort.
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Summary: Drama In Palos Verdes
Review: The story is about a disfunctional family from which a girl surfer emancipates throught surfing, while also triyng to save her twin brother. Moving and brilliantly written, you can't stop reading this book until the end.
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Summary: The Tribes of Palos Verdes
Review: The Tribes of Palos Verdes is one of those "Must Read" novels that keeps you hooked throuout the whole book. I had such a good time analyzing each character and reading how one's actions can affect many, in ways unimaginable- not only emotional, but in ways that scar permanently that later come to haunt you. Medina, one of the main characters, is one of those teenage girls that is just begining to live, thinking that the only way to live life to the fullest is by being someone she's not. Throughout the book, Medina had a great impact on the way I saw things. I would observe her in ways so deep that I would coincidentally guess what she would do next. She had in many ways small characteristics that I see in myself and my friends put together, making me realize that I should learn from other's mistakes, in this case- Medina. Joy Nicholson made this novel so beautifully detailed and vivid, that there were times I would get a full picture of the scenes going on. If you are interested in books that are more real and down to earth, give this one a try, I can almost assure you, you won't want to put it down!
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Summary: I'm a teen living in PV
Review: This book was really good, don't get me wrong, but the writer is completely off if she thinks PV's really the way she wrote about it to be. First of all, she needs to brush up on her surfing knowledge before she writes a book about it. Most of it is false. Secondly, it was completely exaggerated. Red tides are really not that big of a deal, and the people here aren't the way she described them to be. These things kind of annoyed me. Other than that, it was good.
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Summary: Wow
Review: This book was so good. Don't let the cover fool you, I thought it was going to be about Indians, but I read and then I couldn't stop reading! I most definately recommend this book to anyone. It has drama, humor, everything. I could totally identify with the character.
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Summary: A great book about people and life--not surfing or PV
Review: This is a novel set in Palos Verdes and the plot revolves around a girl who fights to learn to surf and gain acceptance with a male surfing community and has conflict with her family and her snobbish neighbors. But it would be ashame if the only people who pick up this book are those connected to Palos Verdes or the surfing, because the book is much bigger than this, despite it's simple prose and storyline. This is a story about the people and how they relate to each other. And it does as good a job depicting real people, their relationships, and their conflicts as any book I have read. The characters are vivid and believable. The center of all of this is Medina's (the main character's) family, who are expertly portrayed. Each member of the family has a unique and realistic (though dysfunctional) relationship with every other member. The book also has other merits. The story of her success in surfing and becoming accepted in the all-male surf-clique works on an emotional level, and the writing is quite easy to read without sacrificing the story. In fact, with only sparse description, a non-surfer like myself does truly feel as if they know what it feels like to surf. To address a previous reader's comments, I think I can safely say the author does not feel that people from San Pedro should be killed--only that Medina, coming from her sheltered beach community has been trained to fear other parts of the city to a ridiculous extent. And as for the book not "going anywhere"--it goes exactly where most great books about young protaganists go. Because more than anything, it is about a young person growing up in a world that can be cruel, unjust, and irrational, and learning to face that world with strength and courage.
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