OyMG: Review

Title: OyMG
Author: Amy Fellner Dominy
Release Date: May 2011
Published By: Walker & Company
Pages: 256
Goodreads Rating: 4.48 stars


Review: Jewish girl Ellie Taylor loves speeches and debating, so more than anything, she wants to win the final tournament at the Christian Society Speech and Performing Arts summer program in order to get into the best speech school in the nation. Except the competition is hot - literally. Her opponent, Devon, is not only attractive but a serious rival, and as if that's not enough, the scholarship benefactor dislikes Jewish people. Ellie must make a choice about what she wants, but that's hard when she doesn't even know what that is anymore.

OyMG was a super cute, super fun book that I had a great time reading. Although it dealt with serious themes of religious identity and discrimination, Amy Fellner Dominy packed a lot of humor in this relatively short novel. There were parts that had me laughing out loud because of all the messes Ellie kept getting herself into, and this worked with the fast pace to create a compelling read.

This hilarity was interspersed with real struggles that the protagonist had to face, and I genuinely sympathized with Ellie. She wanted to go to that amazing school with Devon, who liked her back, but on the other hand, she didn't want to pretend to be someone she wasn't and disappoint her grandfather. I appreciated that she wasn't a whiny, self-pitying main character and instead had a lot of fire and spunk that I admired.

If there was one aspect of this book that I didn't like as much, it was probably the discrimination on the benefactor's part. I'm not saying that this isn't a very real problem in society today, but the reasons she gave for disliking Jewish people just felt very contrived. They just didn't feel like something someone who was actually biased would say. Maybe it was just me, but that just struck me as a bit odd.

Overall, this book is exactly like its cover: cute, fun, and a blast to read. I was hooked from beginning to end by Ellie's strong and spunky voice, as well as the hilarious scenes she wound up in. I did feel that the discrimination aspect was a bit forced and overdone, but other than that, OyMG was the perfect read to relax with while still dealing with serious issues that many teenagers struggle with. I would recommend this to anyone.


I received a free copy of this book for review. This is no way affected my review, which is 100% honest.