Review: Unpregnant by Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan

Title: Unpregnant
Author: Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age Group: Young Adult
Category: Contemporary
Release date: September 10th, 2019
Pages: 272
Rating: 3 out of 5
Source: Edelweiss+
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Seventeen-year-old Veronica Clarke never thought she would wish she’d failed a test until she finds herself holding a thick piece of plastic in her hands and staring at two solid pink lines. Even the most consistent use of condoms won’t prevent pregnancy when your boyfriend secretly pokes holes in them to keep you from going out-of-state for college. 

Veronica needs an abortion, but the closest place she can legally get one is over nine hundred miles away—and Veronica doesn’t have a car. Too ashamed to ask her friends or family for help, Veronica turns to the one person she believes won’t judge her: Bailey Butler, Jefferson High’s own little black cloud of anger and snark—and Veronica’s ex-best friend. Once on the road, Veronica quickly remembers nothing with Bailey is ever simple and that means two days of stolen cars, shotguns, crazed ex-boyfriends, truck stop strippers with pro-life agendas, and a limo driver named Bob. But the pain and betrayal of their broken friendship can’t be outrun. When their fighting leads to a brutal moment of truth, Bailey abandons Veronica. Now Veronica must risk everything in order to repair the hurt she’s caused

Veronica is just a normal teenage girl. She's popular, does well in school, and even got into an ivy-league college.  The only thing that could ruin her life and her reputation now is getting pregnant- which she does.  When she finds out that her boyfriend planned it to trap her, she knows that the only option for her is abortion.  Coming from a very religious family and friendship circle, she keeps it a secret and involves the only person who can't judge--her ex best friend, Bailey.

 I went into this story very open-minded, because as a woman, I firmly believe in pro-choice.  It's the first book I've read about abortion, and it was masked by a fun summer road-trip adventure.  My biggest gripe about the writing was the portrayal of Veronica's boyfriend.  Granted, he is trash for what he did to her, but as the story went on, he got crazier and crazier.  As they fled from state to state, trying to make it from Missouri to New Mexico, Kevin somehow always managed to catch up to try and ruin the plan.  This small detail made me roll my eyes several times because it was so outlandish.

I did, however, really enjoy the fact that although the topic was pretty heavy for your standard contemporary YA, it still felt very light and easy to read.  I loved the dynamic between Veronica and Bailey.  They split when they were in middle school and went in complete opposite directions, yet Bailey is the only one who would agree to help Veronica and stand by her every step of the way.  Boy, was it an adventure.  Who knew that two teenage girls could get themselves into so much trouble in one weekend?  There were strippers, potential serial killers, grand theft auto, and giant pink elephants, just to name a few of the things standing in their way.

I ended up reading this book in one sitting; it was just one of those stories where I had to see it through to the end, just to make sure that Veronica made the right decision for herself and to see what would become of her and Bailey's friendship.  I was eager to see if anyone else would find out about the secret, after all.  I would recommend this book to anyone looking for stories that involve a strong female influence!

If you want to see my Book Aesthetics post on Unpregnant, click here!