"My Name is Chloe" by Melody Carlson

About this book:

  “Josh Miller’s kid sister, Chloe, is not your average teen. To some, she’s a frustrated rebel; to others, a free-spirited freak…Chloe has questions and doubts that take you places most people never think to go…like the local cemetery. After a personal encounter with God—on His terms, at last—she surrenders her will and her heart to Him, then sets out on a spiritual mission.

Guitar in hand, Chloe finds music is the conduit for the deep feelings that pulse through her soul….and forms a girl band Redemption. Yet even for a follower of Christ, like never plays in perfect harmony.

  Join Chloe at the beginning of a wild ride to stardom in the Christian music industry—a place where life is unpredictable and only God knows what kind of twists and turns await you on the road ahead.”


Series: Book #1 in the series “Diary of a Teenage Girl: Chloe”, which is connected to the prior series, “Diary of a Teenage Girl: Caitlin”.


Spiritual Content- Scriptures are read & thought over; Being witnessed to; Going to youth group; Many talks about God & good vs evil; For the first half of the book, the ‘H’s are not capitalized when referring to God, but in the later half they are capital; Chloe questions God a lot, but only on the days that she still believes in Him; She does start trying to talk to God but does get confused a lot; *Spoiler* A little before halfway, Chloe gives her heart to God *End of Spoiler*; Many mentions of God & Jesus; Many mentions of prayers, praying, & talking to God; Many mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, Scriptures, Jesus’ redlines, & those in the Bible; Many mentions of Christians & faiths; Mentions of churches, church going, services, sermons, pastors, hymns, choirs, youth groups, & Sunday school; Mentions of missionaries, mission trips, & mission schools; Mentions of Heaven & angels; Mentions of religions/denominations, Mass, & confessions; Mentions of priests & nuns; Mentions of Christmas & a Christmas concert; Mentions of sins & sinners; A few mentions of forgiveness;

             *Note: Many mentions of a new friend of Chloe’s being in to Wicca, witchcraft, & spells/hexes (Chloe doesn’t think it’s true for herself, but doesn’t see the harm if Allie wants to believe in it until she realizes that it isn’t right, up to semi-detailed; *Spoiler* Towards the end, Allie tries going to church and looking into Christianity, and later asks Jesus into her heart *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of evil & the devil trying to mess up somebody’s life; Mentions of a Spiritual battle; A couple mentions of karma; A mention of religious wars; A mention of witches worshipping the devil; A mention of Chloe’s dad thinking she was turning into a satanist; A mention of a cult; A mention of aliens.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘bleeping’, a ‘crummy’, a ‘duh’, a ‘flying fig’, four forms of ‘shut up’, five forms of ‘crud’, ten ‘sheesh’s, and ten ‘stupid’s; Chloe and a couple others cuss (she only cusses once, said, not written); Chloe has promised herself (“for whatever reason”) to not swear or curse in this diary or lyrics; Sarcasm & Eye rolling; Chloe fights with her mom somewhat often; Being slapped, punched, blood/bleeding, pain, hatred, & smacking someone back (up to semi-detailed);

Mentions of bullies, injuries, & blood/bleeding; Mentions of wanting to punch someone; Mentions of jail & being arrested; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, & wild parties; Mentions of drugs, high school students doing drugs, & those trying to stay clean; Mentions of cigarettes & smoking; Mentions of tattoos & piercings; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of wars & PTSD; A few mentions of a school shooting & deaths; A few mentions of a friend who says they wanted to die; A few mentions of divorces; A few mentions of rumors & gossip; A few mentions of throwing up; A couple mentions of people burning witches alive a hundred years ago; A couple mentions of murder; A couple mentions of starvation & child slavery; A mention of 9/11; A mention of thieves; A mention of lies & lying; A mention of the lottery;

             *Note: Chloe has multiple ear piercings and a bully button piercing (for a total of seven piercings) and while she’s been tempted to get a tattoo, she does not have one; Mentions of witches sacrificing animals and people & drinking their blood (one girl comments that she saw that on TV); Mentions of a mean girl making a racial comment to an African American girl & another girl commenting about never having an African-American friend and some stereotypes; Mentions of racists, bigotry, & prejudice; Mentions of designers/brand names & car brands; Mentions of singers, bands, & songs; A few mentions of TV shows & movies (one about a witch); A couple mentions of & going to Starbucks.   

Sexual Content- A couple blushes; a ‘hottee’; Many mentions of boys, boyfriends, girlfriends, exes, dating, dates, liking someone, crushes, & looking for love; Mentions of a couple abstaining from sex until they are married (Chloe says that it’s unusual, but it makes sense and that she will have to think about it more later); Mentions of girls kissing other girls (Allie brings it up as it’s in recent movies, but Chloe calls that gross and that she would never do that); Mentions of touches & embraces; A few mentions of children dying from aids & being used for pornography or prostitution (and one thirteen-year-old being rescued from prostitution); A few mentions of Chloe’s ex that backstabbed her after she wouldn’t give in to him; A mention of prostitutes; A mention of a teenager not being pregnant; A mention of hot-blooded Latino men having big families; A mention of high school being a pubescent penitentiary; A mention of a boy telling a dirty joke;

             *Note: A mention of someone being a “pain in the you-know-what”.

-Chloe Miller, age 15-16
                                P. O.V. of Chloe (in a diary-style)
                                                        279 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Add a star for those in Public or Private School.}

I definitely enjoyed the last half more than the first half of this book, but overall it’s really neat to see the changes in Chloe and her friends by the end. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not really a fan of the diary style, but those who keep their own diary might like this series. There are some comments or content that probably isn’t the most fitting for younger ages, but as always, it depends on the girl and her life experiences.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

"Becoming Me" by Melody Carlson

About this book:

  “In the fictional Diary of a Teenage Girl, sixteen-year-old Caitlin O'Conner reveals the inner workings of a girl caught between childhood and womanhood ... an empty life without Christ and a meaningful one with Him. Through Caitlin's candid journal entries we see her grapple with such universal teen issues as peer pressure, loyalty, conflict with parents, the longing for a boyfriend, and her own spirituality. Readers will laugh and cry with Caitlin as she struggles toward self-discovery and understanding God's plan for her life. And they'll be deeply moved by her surprising commitment regarding dating.
  Follow Caitlin O'Conner, a girl much like yourself, as she makes her way from New Year's to the first day of summer -- surviving a challenging home life, changing friends, school pressures, an identity crisis, and the uncertainties of "true love."
  You'll cry with Caitlin as she experiences heartache, and cheer for her as she encounters a new reality in her life: God. See how rejection by one group can -- incredibly -- sometimes lead you to discover who you really are...”


Series: Book #1 in the series “Diary of a Teenage Girl: Caitlin”.


Spiritual Content- Scriptures are mentioned & quoted; Prayers & Thanking God; Talks about God & forgiveness; ‘H’s are not capitalized when referring to God; Going to Church & youth group; Caitlin becomes upset with God & thinks He turned His back on her (she later tries to learn more about religion and half-way through the story, asks Jesus into her heart); Caitlin doesn’t get why God would allow bad things to happen; Many mentions of churches, church going, Bible studies, youth group, youth group trips, pastors, & sermons/lessons; Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of Christians; Mentions of Heaven & Hell; Mentions of miracles; Mentions of Easter Sunday; Mentions of a mission trip; Mentions of a Christian concert; A couple mentions of a Jewish father & a daughter not practicing his religion; A couple mentions of Catholic nuns; A mention of a Christian convention; A mention of a church camp;

             *Note: A couple mentions of rumors about a freshman belonging to a satanic group & vowing to kill Christians; A couple mentions of selling your soul to the devil; A mention of when Caitlin was thirteen, she thought her dad “was the next thing to God himself”.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘#@!!#!’, a form of ‘darn’, a ‘screwed up’, two ‘duh’s, two forms of ‘dumb’, three forms of ‘crap’, three ‘idiot’s, three ‘shut up’s, three forms of ‘wimp’, eight forms of ‘crud’, and forty-eight forms of ‘stupid’; Sarcasm & Eye rolling; Some lying; Caitlin thinks about suicide at one point when things are hard (she comments that it would be an easy escape from all the pain, but does not attempted anything); Caitlin goes to parties with underage drinking & drugs and does try a drink at one party (she does get into a car with a driver that drank); Mentions of a school shooting & deaths (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of being suicidal; Mentions of alcohol, parties, underage drinking, & throwing up; Mentions of alcohol, bars, smoking, drugs, & addicts; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of rumors; Mentions of a dog being hit by a car & dying (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of drunk driving accidents; A few mentions of stealing & being arrested; A few mentions of bullies/gangs & being beat up; A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of a father leaving his family; A couple mentions of divorces; A mention of tattoos;

             *Note: Mentions of car brands; Mentions of brand names & stores; Mentions of actors/actresses (Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Marilyn Monroe); A mention of an author.

Sexual Content- an almost kiss, three not-detailed kisses, three barely-above-not-detailed kisses, a border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kiss, three make-out/touching scenes (semi-detailed), and a scene where an intoxicated guy tries to be aggressive with Caitlin (she tries to push him off); Remembering and Imagining kisses, touches, embraces, & wondering what doing more would be like (they never do more though, up to semi-detailed); Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); *Spoiler* Caitlin finds out that her dad is having an affair (or thinking about having one) and because of hypocrisy she decides that she wants nothing to do with Christianity or church things *End of Spoiler*; *Spoiler* Caitlin decides towards the end of the book to stay a virgin until the day she gets married (she knows it may not be easy, but wants to honor this promise) *End of Spoiler*; *Spoiler* Caitlin’s best friend, Beanie, is afraid that she is pregnant and it is confirmed that she is *End of Spoiler*; a ‘tramp’; Many, many mentions of s*x, high school boys being after one thing, teenagers having s*x often (Caitlin mentions that the girls at her school talk about it lot & have it on school grounds), teens renting hotel rooms after prom (and one of them telling Caitlin all about it), teens’ s*x lives, & waiting for marriage to do it; Many, many mentions of boys, cute boys, crushes, boyfriends/girlfriends, dating, dates, dances, break-ups, & exes; Mentions of seeing a R-rated movie with s*x scenes (Caitlin watches one with a guy) & Caitlin wonders after seeing the actors doing it if it is actually okay to do it; Mentions of out-of-wedlock pregnancies & the chance of getting pregnant; Mentions of abortions, Planned Parenthood, those for it (or were for it), & a boyfriend wanting his girlfriend to go there and get one (Caitlin and her best friend are against them); Mentions of praying that God restoring a girl’s virginity; Mentions of affairs; Mentions of kisses, kissing, a first kiss (Caitlin had her first kiss at a middle school church camp during a game of spin the bottle), seeing couples kissing, & making out; Mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of date rape; A few mentions of jealousy; A mention of a couple using protection and it failing; A mention of a STD; A mention of a mom’s boyfriend who is a creep;

             *Note: Caitlin wears a top that shows a little skin on a date & when her dad nearly comments on it, she thinks to him to get over it; Mentions of anorexia (some popular girls thought that it was cool); A few mentions of a guy thinking Caitlin’s outfit is “sensuous”; A couple mentions of PMS & periods; A mention of cramps; A mention of a strapless dress.

-Caitlin O’Conner, age 16
                                P.O.V. of Caitlin (in a diary-style)
                                                        249 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Add a star for those in Public or Private School.}

When I first read this book as a pre-teen, I really enjoyed it—probably because of all of the teen drama, but now—nearly ten years later, it’s really not my cup of tea. According to a recent poll I did on Instagram, not many readers mind out-dated contemporary books, but I think I fall in the minority of those results. I struggled with the diary-style writing in this book (including the font that can be hard on the eyes), but there are good lessons in this first book. You just have to get through Caitlin’s desire for being popular, a guy that isn’t good for her who she keeps kissing, going to parties with underage drinking and smoking, and more trouble. While I liked Caitlin better by the end of the story, I don’t believe I’ll be continuing rereading the rest of her series.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.