DARK BLUE: COLOR ME LONELY
Melody Carlson
Th1nk Books/NavPress
Fiction
ISBN: 1576835294
196 pages

Melody Carlson has created an emotional touchstone resource for female teen readers in her series titled True Colors. A prolific author of over seventy books, and mom to two grown sons, Carlson has taken a reminiscent look back at her own teen years to write this story. The result is terrific, and young adults will find Carlson's fiction closer to "true" life than they might anticipate.

The story's primary message is based on the excruciatingly painful emotion of loneliness and how it can overwhelm, undermine, and skew the ability to function in a healthy way. Kara Hendricks is a quiet girl, but when outgoing Jordan Ferguson takes her hand (way back in kindergarten) and announces her loyalty, Kara and Jordan become best friends for the better part of eight years. Fast forward to high school: Jordan now announces to the still shy and reticent Kara that she's going to try out for the cheerleading squad. Kara is abhorrent but supportive. Shockingly, Jordan does not make the team, to Kara's clear relief. The following year Jordan will not be dissuaded and tries out a second time; she makes the team, to Kara's obvious discomfort.

What follows is not so unusual in the basic fictional formula, where two former best friends take their separate paths --- one's heart is broken (the one left behind) and the other moves on to better and brighter things. This story aptly describes the day-to-day heartaches that Kara experiences as a friend no longer needed or wanted in Jordan's now-popular social set. While the book could read blandly and predictably, Carlson does some creative wordplay and continually draws readers smack-dab into Kara's volatile emotional journey, thus ensuring a lively, engaging read. Using such emotionally charged phrases as "...another part of me is dark blue, and I feel buried alive in a deep and bitter grief," and "I am lonely. Unspeakably lonely. And there is this dull empty ache inside of me. Sometimes I think it might actually kill me. But perhaps that would be a relief," Carlson successfully gets her readers' attention.

DARK BLUE: COLOR ME LONELY follows Kara though the school year as she works to survive her emotional funk. She meets new people, slowly engages with them, and learns about true friendship. In the midst of her deepest feelings of despondency, Kara reaches out to God and makes a connection with Christ --- her now "best friend." The author explores Kara's newfound faith tenderly yet with a frank transparency that works well with the current tempo of the entire text. Young adults will not only appreciate the candor with which this topic is explored, they'll find themselves seeing social situations in a whole new (and enlightened) way.

   --- Reviewed by Michele Howe

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.