When your mom is the high school principal, life can be really lame. Aggie’s solution is to “go Goth.” You know, wear all black, put on creepy black makeup and generally act like the world is yours to toy with. Look at her on the outside and, if she can help it, she’ll scare the pants off of you.

But we get to see the inside of Aggie — and there is a lot of hurt and fear there. A lot of wanting to be loved and needing acceptance is under her pretty terrifying exterior, and she’s so afraid of losing the tiny spot she’s carved for herself at school that she’ll keep any of the “real” Aggie buried deep.

The prom? SO lame. Aggie wishes it didn’t even exist, but then, this year, the election for prom royalty turns into a catastrophe on so many different levels that Aggie cannot escape from it. And some serious choices have to be made.

For me, honestly, all the brouhaha over prom felt a little scripted. I wasn’t dying to find out how that part sorted out, but Aggie and her personal life, her relationships, were more intriguing. It’s so hard to learn to stand up for yourself when all you want is to be loved — if nothing else, Lara Zielin captured that teenage angst just right. While the ending felt a bit too wrapped-up-with-a-bow, I liked the message it gives to teens, about making things right and giving your parents a chance.

Rated: High for strong language throughout (the f-word was sprinkled on like candy) with moderate language on nearly every other page. Two rather graphic scenes of teenage sex and talk of masturbation. Teenage pregnancy is a major plot point of the book.