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"Bushnell certainly packs this book full of plot points: Carrie discovers a friend is gay, that another may be pregnant, and that one of her best friends is cheating with her boyfriend. Her mother's death has caused them all pain, and one of her sisters is becoming a criminal. To top it off, she has angered the most popular girl at school (and is causing more controversy with articles she is writing about cliques and popularity for the school paper).  It's a lot, but mostly well done. The only major device that simply doesn't work here is Carrie's boyfriend Sebastian. Readers may understand the initial sparks, but he is so controlling and smarmy that it's hard to understand Carrie's burning desire. \nBut considering that teen girls -- and their mothers -- would have picked up this book even if it was just a list of Carrie's favorite high school outfits and '80s cassette tapes, this book has remarkable substance. Readers will not only find it believable that lively high school Carrie will grow up to be the funny, stylish city-dwelling sex columnist we know so well, they will also be left thinking about all kinds of important questions, such as what should you expect a high school boyfriend to act like? Or what does it mean to be feminist in today's society? These are the types of questions that often framed episodes of the popular TV show and kept fans debating between episodes. Ideally, this book will get parents and teens chatting in much the same way."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-carrie-diaries>