Product Description

Nicola Lancaster is spending eight weeks at the Siegel Institute Summer Program for Gifted Youth, a hothouse of smart, articulate, intense teenagers. She soon falls in with Katrina (Manic Computer Chick), Isaac (Nice-Guy-Despite-Himself), Kevin (Inarticulate Composer) . . . and Battle. Battle Hall Davies is a beautiful blonde dancer, and everything Nic isn't. The two become friends-and then, startlingly, more than friends. What do you do when you think you're attracted to guys, and then you meet a girl who steals your heart?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106850 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780142500590
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
While the characters in this first novel are not fully developed and the dialogue often feels clunky, Ryan nonetheless surpasses many of the trappings of stereotypical gay teen representations. At a summer school program for the gifted, anthropology student Nicola, or "Nic," pens everything in her "field notes," from over-scripted exchanges with her dimensionless new friends, like outspoken redhead Katrina and spacey music student Kevin ("It's like we're in a chat room and he's got a really slow connection") to painfully detailed descriptions of their clothes. Nic's driving need to label everything wears at her fledgling relationship with Southern belle Battle (tension comes to a head on their "two-week anniversary"). Ryan is to be applauded for taking this story beyond an identity struggle; at story's end, Nic is unsure if she is a lesbian or bisexual, but she comes to accept her feelings without having to label herself, and learns to tolerate outsiders' judgments. Mostly she grapples with the ordinary drama and traumas of teen romance. Ryan also does not shy away from describing the physical relationship between Nic and Battle (though nothing beyond kissing is made explicit). Her story unfolds slowly and, ultimately ends up feeling unpolished, but many teens will be drawn to the subject matter, and Nic herself is an appealing heroine. Ages 12-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-Written with understanding, humor, and heart, this first novel explores a teen love relationship bounded by time, inexperience, and an enclosed community setting. Nicola goes away to a summer program for gifted students, expecting to explore her interest in archaeology while also continuing her artwork. On the very first day, she is attracted to another girl, but she refuses to be labeled as a lesbian because she thinks she's also attracted to boys. And that is the rub with which Nic is faced in this realistically flowing plot: she thinks and analyzes everything she feels, everything others say to her, things left unsaid. This, rather than the gender orientation of her first serious relationship-which does unfold, collapse, and then bloom again before summer's end-is what she learns about herself. Ryan places Nic not only in a romantic relationship with a girl who herself is willing to explore sexuality with a girl and a boy in the same summer-school period, but also in credible friendships with an evidently straight girl and a couple of straight boys. The strength of this novel lies in this interweaving of types of partnerings: the ones driven by desire, those driven by respect for emotional understanding, and others that teens undertake for reasons-frustratingly for Nic-that simply can't be analyzed. These characters seem to breathe in their realism, and the setting of a secluded campus, inhabited by brainy teens for a couple of months, is evoked in sensual detail.
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 9-12. Fifteen-year-old Nicola is spending the summer at an institute for gifted youth, where she's studying archaeology. To her surprise, she falls in love with another girl, Battle, a lovely dancer with long hair, and Battle with her. Nic's intense feelings for Battle cause a break-up that sends Battle off with a guy, but unlike many stories of young love, this has a happy ending. Interestingly, Ryan writes this just like most teen romances; as far as the events go, Battle could easily have been a boy. A few muttered "dykes" is the extent of reaction from the other students, and though Nic, who has liked boys in the past, wonders about her sexuality, this seems to be a side issue; the main one is how Battle feels about her. There are subplots about parents and archaeology, but as in real life, the girls are submerged in the relationship. The dialogue may be a bit like Dawson's Creek's at times, but first-novelist Ryan has a good handle on her characters and on her story, which is romantic without being explicit and feels very much like today. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Likeable characters, believable plotting, & smart writing.
Publisher's Weekly is usually a reliable, objective source, which makes the review above all the more disturbing: this is one of the most competently written & deftly characterized young adult novels for lesbians I've seen in a long while. (I've been reading such books for 30+ years.) It's a shame the review is so out of step with the book's tone, given how influential it gets to be just by virtue of sitting here, on Amazon. The reviewer claims the characters are flat & the dialogue 'over-scripted' (huh? oh please) yet gives only 1 (very peripheral) example--which in context works quite well, as it happens. And as for "painfully detailed descriptions of their clothes"--I'd bet money the (anonymous) reviewer was a man: this is a book about teenaged girls, hello?

Ryan's characters are both distinct and quite believable; the language she uses is specific to each character, a pretty impressive accomplishment for any book but especially a Y/A one; and the (fairly low-key) trials of the two lead girls feel real without the tedious melodrama of so much teen writing. It's a refreshing and well-told story with a credible ending: as a debut novel, it's terrific. This business about 'one-dimensional' characters strikes me as either a writer so unfamiliar with the genre he had no business reviewing this, or as just plain old poorly-masked homophobia: if you don't want to read about gay teens then... don't. If you do, give this book a try--especially if you're interested in writing about Y/A lesbian subject matter. Heaven knows such books are and remain scarce on the ground. This is one of the good ones.

Not Your Average Relationship
Empress of the World by Sara Ryan won the Oregon Award in 2002 and for good reason too. As a guy, reading about the summer trip of a teenage girl, I was compelled to keep reading, even though, Nic's character was not someone that I could relate to.
Sara Ryan's book centers around Nic, a teenage girl who spends the summer in a school for the gifted in order to study her lifelong passion, archaeology. During the summer she finds out more about herself and her sexuality. She goes into the school thinking that she is straight, having crushes on guys, but encounters Battle, a beautiful girl, whom Nic falls in love with. Even though the novel's main focus is on the relationship between Nic and Battle, we learn about the other friendships that Nic has made during her stay. Sara includes a barrage "Field Notes" from Nic's journal, telling the reader what exactly is going on between Nic and her new found friends.
Even though this book contains homosexual themes, and some people might find this uncomfortable, I would recommend this book to anyone. When I first read the description on the back cover, I was a little skeptical that this was going to be a story that I would enjoy reading... "What do you do when you think you're attracted to guys, and then you meet a girl who steals your heart?" However as I got into the book I felt like the characters and relationships were very real even though the main character ended up being bisexual. It was a quick read too. It can be read in one sitting. The writing is fast paced and through constant intense situations you want to keep reading.

Author makes characters believable
An endearing look about a young lesbian (she is still coming to terms with her sexuality), and her friends at a gifted youth program. It is a coming of age story, and the main character, Nicola, writes journals about her friends, and her feelings. I enjoyed the book, and I felt that the author did a terrific job in identifying with the age group.