By reaching the summit of the mountain, Henry learns that instead of his father's strategy of avoiding discomfort, pain, and sadness, Henry should build his house right in the center of tragedy, which he and his father call, "Trouble." Update this section!

There were people besides just Aaron who stood by Hannah when she got outed. She had other friends. What I loved was that it wasn't always about Hannah and her pregnancy, both of these MCs have a story to tell and told through a dual perspective. Hannah is your typical teenager, she likes a drink, she likes to party and she certainly likes having sex too. But one night, when she first took her V card, she didn't realise it was going to haunt her 4 months down the line when she becomes pregnant. She doesn't count on the baby daddy being around. So when a curious, new student named Aaron arrives she feels something right with him and before both too them know it, he's volunteered to be the fake baby daddy. I haven't read something like this before and I was typically a fan even when this book was first released. But one day it peaked my curiosity and I thought why the hell not. I wasn't disappointed instead I was elated, happy, tearful, it was beautiful seeing new lives being born. Not just a new born but the start of something magical.I liked the way the families were so supportive of their kids. There are so many YA books where kids are cut adfrift either emotionally or physically from their parents that to see multi-generational families being so close and loving was really great. I also liked that Hannah and Aaron’s relationship didn’t develop past friendship. We don’t see enough boy-girl friendships in YA lit and it’s a shame. And how might you feel if you'd had a life like Chay's and found yourself behind the wheel in such circumstances? Gary Schmidt does an incredible job with character development, and he is one of those writers that can take a small phrase and so clearly set the scene and make you visualize what’s happening. He especially does a great job with the scenes with the dog—it is obvious that the author knows and likes dogs, and those scenes were both heartbreaking, and hysterical! In addition to Henry, the characters of Henry’s friend Sanborn (who shows up to climb Katahdin and support his friend--despite Henry’s attempt to go it alone) and of “the enemy” Chay are superbly done. Sanborn and Henry have one of those deep male friendships disguised by constant insults and even fights—the kind of fights where neither gets mad no matter who wins. And Chay has layers that are revealed a small bit at a time. He goes from The Bad Guy of the story to just…human. I got about halfway through the book and looked at this blurb again, wondering what I’d missed. Hannah complains and gripes and puts people down and snaps, but no, I really wasn’t seeing the funny. And I certainly didn’t think she was smart. In any sense of the word. Smart people don’t: There were moments in the book that made me inadvertently cringe. Especially in the beginning, I was certainly like 'Really!?', why would a teenager of the age of fifteen want to become someone like that, want to throw away their life and want to grow up in more ways than one. I think Hannah was someone pretty much like that, But she certainly had some slutty friends naming one, Katie. I actually wanted to really slap her. She was nothing but a wannabe bratty child and she makes Hannah's life a living hell while she hasn't got enough on her plate already. However let me highlight the WAS in that sentence. I think having another responsibility for not only yourself is something scary, frightening and is the unknown. Hannah comes a long way to accept that, and that's what aspiring in Pratt's writing and her character.

Not only were the parents of both characters present in their lives, but they were supportive- not all the time- but they truly cared about their children's physical and mental health. Hannah is fifteen and pregnant. Suddenly faced with motherhood alone she doesn't know what to do or who to turn to. When new guy in school offers to pretend to be the father to protect her from the students, who have turned into vultures, at school, Hannah accepts. They are thrown into a beautiful friendship but both Hannah and Aaron are keeping big secrets. What will happen when they all come to light? Will it tear the best friends apart or can their friendship stand all weathers? Set in the 1980s, TROUBLE is the story of Henry Smith, a middle school student growing up on the northern coast of Massachusetts in a large house which has been inhabited by his ancestors for 300 years. Henry's older brother, Franklin, and his sister, Louisa, both attend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Preparatory High School in Blythbury-by-the-Sea, the town that has grown up around their ancestral home. Big brother Franklin is the golden boy, popular and athletic, who can do no wrong -- or at least that is how it seems at first glance. I truly loved the eventual rallying of Hannah’s family upon hearing her news. Her relationship with her grandmother was such a wonderful part of her story. And Aaron’s relationship with the cranky Neville added some necessary levity to the overall story.For me this book is all about friendship and the main characters learning what it is to be a good friend. As the book goes on you get to see shifts in the social groups both Hannah and Aaron associate with and it is brilliant to see them at that last stage of high school going into adulthood as they suss out which of their friends are true friends and deserve the loyalty the other can offer. However, with out spoiling it, I didn't like who the father turned out to be or how it was dealt with. Technically, Hannah falling pregnant at fifteen would be statutory rape, combine this with the father, would this realistically be ignored by the parents and not perused any further? There was, to my recollection, no mention of how the parents dealt with who the father was. For me, it took a book that could have been very realistic and made it less so.

Pratt has created amazingly layered and captivating characters in the form of Hannah and Aaron and we get their stories in alternating chapters. Both of them are struggling with what is going on in their lives… Hannah in a very apparent way, and Aaron in a way that is a bit less apparent but none-the-less hard for him. One scene that totally didn't ring true and really bugged me was the courtroom "interrogation" of the witnesses: Why would Chay's lawyer laying out all the information that can convince anyone that Chay had every right to take revenge on Franklin, after being harassed for such a long time? All those questions serve as an exposition for the readers but it was done in a way that is not convincing at all. I liked the way this was shown to be not true. It’s a really big issue for teenage girls today, and it was explored so well, if you want to look for the themes. It's another really important message that I took away from this book, and I think if you're willing to think about it a bit, it's really educational. Also, Hannah's self esteem and self worth is not dictated by these disgusting men. She knows it isn’t true, and that’s one of the reasons why I love this book so much. SO. MUCH. FRIENDSHIP. This might have been one of the biggest ideas, and I loved it! It showed how much a true best friend can mean to us, and this was the aspect that really helped me. The platonic relationship between Hannah and Aaron made me realise so much about my own life, which was one fo the reasons I found this book so touching. It hit really close to home, and although this won't make it everyone's favourite book, I think it was really moving, and important for everyone.One of my fascinations with Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 80s is how it became a place where different rules applied, where reality itself seemed up for grabs. Nowhere was this more the case than the “Provisional Republic” of South Armagh, AKA Bandit Country, with its handmade “sniper at work” signs and its community militias all surveyed by the watchtowers and helicopters of the British army. Toby Harnden’s book is a compulsively fascinating tour of this alternative universe. Sadly she doesn’t really develop over the course of the book. She stops wearing make up and reconnects with some friends that she used to hang out with (but only because the popular crowd have dumped her) but she doesn’t really develop. She doesn’t gain new insight, which is astonishing seeing as how her entire life has changed. We don’t find out her thoughts on impending motherhood. In fact, the only time her pregnancy is mentioned is when she has physical symptoms, like peeing and horniness. If the end was a bit too nicely resolved...well, I can forgive a lot when a book is this well done. The last part was directed not at Henry but at the dog, who had come to sniff Henry's father to see if he might be at all interesting. It was weird about consent. The line about ‘no-one can make me do anything. Least of all that’ fell squarely into victim-blaming territory. It was weird about promiscuity. It was sometimes ok for people to badmouth it and other times it wasn’t. Then we find out that Jay was the first guy Hannah slept with it and there was only what, two, others after. So she wasn’t actually that fond of sleeping around? And somehow that changed how people saw her situation? Idk it was weird.

The elderly characters not only have agency, and the trust of the teen characters, and pasts, but they are friends, not mentors. That is something which I found completely awesome about Trouble. They are allowed to still be awesome in their own right. They're not just foils for the younger characters to learn. They are active, opinionated, sassy characters in their own right. I bet your wondering why I didn’t rate it 5 stars if I loved the story so much. Well, that’s because of the ending. I loved how the story ended but just felt as though it needed more. It ended too soon after a major moment. I wanted to know what happened next. An epilogue would have been fantastic! Hannah and Aaron start being friends Hannah sees him as a hero but Aaron doesn't let her in because of his past.However, later he starts to trust her, and tells her everything.

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Anyway, other than all of that.. I enjoyed reading Trouble. I was frustrated, it got me laughing and it made me think. I don't think it's for everybody though, but it's worth giving a try!