Pink Hair and Other Terrible Ideas

Pyros, Andrea. Pink Hair and Other Terrible Ideas. Capstone, 2019.

Josephine is the less popular of the twins, and she's already reeling from her parents' divorce and trying to navigate the halls of middle school when her mom tells her that she's been diagnosed with breast cancer. Josephine doesn't want to stand out at school, so she tries not to tell anyone, but then her brother, in a show of support, dyes his hair bright pink, and Josephine finds she cannot hide any longer.

This was a great idea for a book, but it ended super abruptly. There were lots of threads of the story that were picked up and then dropped. It reads more like a book for middle grade students (3rd-4th grade), but the main characters are twelve and have crushes and go to boy/girl parties, etc. etc, which makes it hard to place this book in the library.

I wasn't sure why the idea of the principal complaining about Josephine's brother's pink hair was placed in the story when it wasn't fleshed out more later on. The whole football team could have gotten their hair dyed, or Josephine's friends could have done it, or many people from the school or something. It seemed like a major plot point, but then it disappeared, along with most of the details of the mom's cancer and treatments, recovery, etc. The dad wasn't very well rounded, either; readers are told that he is fairly irresponsible and childish, but that's all we get.

I think this book would have benefited with more length to tie up the loose ends of the story or with editing to take away the unnecessary subplots (the dad being a giant child, the boy/girl party not actually involving any risque activity, the outlawing pink hair at the school thing, etc. etc.). I like the idea of this book, but it failed on the execution.

Recommended for: middle grade and tweens
Red Flags: none
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley for the purpose of review.