[Review] Lipstick Apology by Jennifer Jabaley

Title: Lipstick Apology

Author: Jennifer Jabaley

Publisher: Razorbill (August 6th, 2009)

Lipstick Apology might just be a high school girl’s story about fitting in a new school, making new friends while keeping the old, and navigating the tricky waters of romance. Except it isn’t, because Emily’s parents recently died in a plane accident and her mother’s cryptic last words, scrawled in coral lipstick, were broadcast on television: Emily please forgive me.

Emily was a nice and sweet main character, other than the few times when she had emotional outbursts and totally blew up. I would say she’s a pretty good role model for readers, because she not only tries to protect her friends, but also respects her own body. Even when she was spellbound by Owen, who is devastatingly good-looking and a popular member of the swim team, Emily firmly kept things PG and resisted the temptation, which was pretty impressive! 


Georgia, Emily’s BFF from home, and Lindsey, her new friend in New York, both turned out to be really good friends who were always there for Emily when she needed them. While I half-expected Lindsey to suddenly show a hidden bitchy side or something, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Lindsey remained kind, supportive and non-judgmental throughout the entire course of the story.

And then we get to the supposed love triangle. Owen and Anthony are as different as day and night, because as much as Owen is the suave charmer every girl in school adores, Anthony is somewhat of an oddball (a cute one!) who prefers lunching in the library. But Emily strikes up an unlikely friendship with him as they became lab partners and worked together on a Chemistry project; turns out that Anthony’s not just a pro at baking thanks to working at his mom’s bakery, he’s also good at Science! He is also amazingly tolerant, even when Emily was screaming at him,  and doesn’t care what other people think about him. It was rather easy as a reader to tell who would be a better match for Emily and I got frustrated that she was taking so long to realise it, but the journey was worth it in the end.

Two other characters who deserve a special mention would be Emily’s aunt, Jolie, and Jolie’s best friend Trent. Although Emily called them “superficial” at the start, I felt that they had hidden depths and truly cared for Emily. In a way, the book was also Jolie’s journey of maturing and learning what she really needed in love. I wish I had a celebrity make-up artist for an aunt who could drastically change my looks and had a limitless credit card budget, but that doesn't seem to be happening soon, unfortunately. Trent, a celebrity hairstylist, added a ton of humor to the book with his comedic lines and drama behaviour. He might be a bit cliché as the gay (?) best friend, but I liked him anyway and I think most readers will feel the same! 

I did have a couple of issues with the book, as much as I enjoyed it. I felt sorry for Emily for losing her parents, but honestly speaking, I was unable to connect with her emotionally throughout the book. Perhaps it was because we never got to know her parents well enough to really feel her grief and the extent of her loss. When I found out the real reason for Emily's mother's apology, I was just like, “Oh, man, that must have sucked." And that was the full extent of sympathy I felt for Emily! Also, while I do know that Lipstick Apology is focused on Emily’s new life in New York with her aunt and how she copes with her mother’s last message, I was hoping to see more emotions from a teenaged girl who just lost TWO loving parents, and not just her mother. To me, Emily’s father played an overly-small role in the book and it would have been better if readers had a deeper insight into this father-daughter relationship.

Whenever I read a book involving deceased family members, I want it to really invoke strong sentiments within me, because I feel that death isn't some touch-and-go topic that we can take lightly or dismiss easily. Lipstick Apology did disappoint me slightly in this aspect, but I willingly overlooked this on account of the fact that maybe the writer wanted to focus on how Emily was moving on with her new life. 

On the whole, this novel was engaging and had everything you could possibly want in a contemporary YA story. It has plenty of romance and a satisfying ending as well (whew!). I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on Ms Jabaley's second novel, Crush Control, which was published on June 9th this year (: