Angel's Choice

Angels Choice by Lauren Baratz-Logsted is a thought-provoking look at the life of a teen girl who becomes unexpectedly pregnant at the beginning of her senior year in high school. Angels life as an average teen girl comes to an end one night at a party when she gets drunk, and ends up having sex with a boy that she does not honestly even care about. She cant even remember much about the night that she lost her virginity, but it is a night that will change her life forever.

When she begins her senior year, Angel is a high-achieving teen girl who has hopes of getting into Yale and studying to be a writer. Her whole life seems full of opportunities and who knows where her life will take her? But several weeks into the school year, Angel has not been feeling so great. Shes been nauseous, can hardly eat anything, and shes missing her periods. Something is definitely wrong. After taking a pregnancy test with her best friend Karin at her side, Angel knows for certain what she has been suspecting all along she is pregnant.

Her only option seems to be abortion, its what everyone, including herself expects her to do. Angel makes her appointment, arrives at the abortion clinic, and is talking to her doctor before she realizes that maybe abortion is not the right choice for her. Angel sees that all her life, she has been reacting to the people around her. But with a choice as big as this one, Angel needs to make the decision for herself and do what is right for her. Ultimately, Angel decides that she needs to have this baby. With pressure from her best friend, her family, and the biological father of her baby, its incredibly hard for Angel to stand by her decision to keep the baby. However, Angel is so tough and will not waver, no matter what people think of her. Going to school is hard, being the pregnant girl, with people constantly whispering behind her back, but Angel keeps her head up, and keeps living her life.

Laruen Baratz-Logsted shows Angels pregnancy, from conception to delivery, in such a fresh way. The reader can really get inside Angels mind and understand why she is making the choices she is. Reading Angels Choice really made me think about what decisions I might make differently, or the same as Angel. It really impressed upon me that there is no one right answer. With many big decisions in life, each person needs to do what they believe is the right thing to do in their situation. One of the big themes that I took away from this book was not to judge people. Everyones situation is unique and nobody can full comprehend what somebody is going through, so to pass judgement on their choices is so unnecessary and unfair.