ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2020)

Jorie's free verse narrative begins at a party where she gets drunk, ditches her friends and boyfriend, and wakes up in a bunk bed with an R2-D2 waste basket. (The owner of both bunk and basket is sleeping on the floor.) The next part recounts the events leading up to the party: her father's affair with a colleague; her mother giving him another chance, much to Jorie's displeasure; and how Jorie tries to tell her mother about a letter from the woman, hidden in her parents' bedroom. If everything isn't resolved in the aftermath of the party, at least Jorie is more sure of her direction. Heppermann's verse is clear and accessible, laced with humor and teen self-deprecation. Jorie is a delight: she ties in facts about mushrooms, spore prints, and sloths, among other things, to the events, offering insight into her thoughts and feelings. At times, she makes her point with delicious subtlety, while at others, she gets right in the reader's face. Either way, this engaging, provocative narrative will please fans of character-driven fiction.

Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2020)

Jorie wakes up in the Star Wars-branded bedroom of a random guy ("Craig? / Christopher? / Cormorant?") and, in free verse, contemplates how she got there. There was a party, at which she got drunk and kissed a stranger in front of her ex-boyfriend; but before that, her dad cheated on her mom, and Jorie is still hurting. The poems are full of metaphors connected to the natural world (Jorie's dad is the director of a natural history museum); she refers to the woman Dad cheated with, for example, as the "Invasive Species." But our protagonist is particularly passionate about mushrooms; by the time she escapes Conor's room (that's his name, she eventually remembers), readers may share her mycophilia. We learn new vocabulary (mycorrhizal, mycophobe), including the names of different varieties of mushroom ("Amber jelly roll / Birch polypore / Comb tooth") and what prize morels resemble ("like stretched-out shrunken brains, / like shriveled troll caps"). Heppermann's spare, short verses, with precise attention to line length and spacing, smoothly weave together art and biology; Jorie's spore-print poems ("Safe"; "Foraging While Female"), written in small handwriting extending out along gill lines (as she explains), provide an additional, striking visual element. The protagonist's unique perspective enhances this story about pain, connection, and forgiveness.

Kirkus Reviews

A teenage girl reflects on the months and moments that led up to a drunken night.Jorie is a high schooler who loves science and has a penchant for the study of mushrooms. We meet her the morning after she got drunk at a party and passed out in the bed of a stranger. Jorie then spends the novel trying to understand where she is, with whom, how she came to be in this situation, and how to get out of it. We learn of Jorie's mixed feelings toward her parents and her complicated relationship with them, her friends, and her recent ex-boyfriend as well as her budding relationship with her art, which springs from her love of mushrooms. Heppermann uses verse to deconstruct and build up plot points in a skilled manner and keeps the pacing interesting and unpredictable-albeit sometimes jarring-throughout. The format and use of metaphors serves the story well. However, elements of Jorie's present-day state of being could have been delved into more deeply but instead were left unexplored. The novel presents seemingly high-stakes conflicts that are wrapped up with quick resolutions that therefore ultimately read as anticlimactic. An absence of physical descriptions makes characters' races difficult to determine.A quick and engaging read that may end up leaving readers just short of satisfied. (Verse novel. 12-18)

School Library Journal (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2020)

Gr 8 Up-Everyone has their hobbies: For Hudson Valley 11th-grader Jorie, it's making art with mushroom spores. Her interests in nature, poetry, and print-making are also how she processes the things that happen to her, like her breakup with her boyfriend, Ian, and her dad cheating on her mom. Framed by the aftermath of a momentous party where Jorie gets drunk and hooks up with Ian's friend, this novel in verse traces the origins of Jorie's problems, showing readers how they mushroom into more than she can handle alone. Jorie tells her story through short, light poetry that often plays with form. Standouts include "Boots," "Scientific Proof," and "9:06 am," all of which exemplify the insight and subtle humor that is characteristic throughout. Most of the time, the novel succeeds in balancing its multiple plot lines, though the party relinquishes its status as the story's pivotal moment when Jorie's dad's affair takes over instead. The book also attempts to interrogate toxic relationships and catcalling, but sometimes issues like Jorie's ability to consent to her hookup are simply dropped or ignored. The ending therefore does not coalesce as well as it could, but it handles the complexity of Jorie's parents' actions in a nuanced and thought-provoking way. Characters' appearances aren't described. VERDICT This novel would be most suitable for hi-lo readers drawn to the intersection of science and art.Gina Elbert, Bronxville P.L., NY