Hannah and her friend Katie are fifteen. They spend half their time pulling boys, and the other half talking about pulling boys. Aaron is new in school. He's neat, tidy, polite and mysterious - the complete opposite of Hannah and Katie. When Hannah gets pregnant, Aaron offers to pretend to be the father of her baby. A story of unclear intentions and coming-of-age, Trouble uses teenage pregnancy as a cover for tackling issues such as social cliques, what really matters and where real friends are.
It's fair to say that teenage pregnancy is not a new topic for fiction, and young adult fiction in particular. In fact, with a quick search of 'Popular Teen Pregnancy Books', you get a list of over 290 novels! What's new with Trouble is the narrative. Hannah and Aaron being the two protagonists, they share the story, and you feel like you get the full picture. It feels like a combination of two different writers too, because Hannah seems much more like you might expect someone at the top of a social chain – with a tendency to talk really fast so they need to correct themselves and assure you know what they're talking about, and Aaron is much more reserved and descriptive, like he wants you to know what he really feels and thinks. It's a believable and entertaining writing style, and is probably one of the main techniques Non Pratt used which truly enthralled me in the novel – the understanding of the characters was so intriguing and exciting.
There are more aspects to the novel which are meant to enthrall the reader, but sometimes I felt like it was too calculated and formulaic, like a lot of young adult fiction is. Aaron is the new boy in school, and nobody knows where he came from. He's mysterious, and he has secrets. Now, where have we heard that before? Only everywhere. It did take away from the experience of the story, and it felt unnecessary to the actual chronology of events – the mystery, once solved, has no real relevance to much.
Despite the disengaging secret which crops up here and there in the book until the climax of it, Trouble by Non Pratt is very entertaining. I smiled, laughed and related, as well as being anxious and fearful for the characters throughout the story. It is a gripping read, and coupled with the certain realism it's even easier to envisage the situation in real life. For people who enjoy love stories and realistic fiction, Trouble ticked all my boxes for easy-going entertainment with meaningful undertones.
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