An anticipated novel, Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles follows the life of Del, who takes the reader on a journey of teenage growth, dilemmas, and bad advice. A junior at a high school infamous for having a group of young women become pregnant all at once, Del faces the judgement of his peers, the concern of his parents, the unlikely antagonism of his church’s Pastor, and the challenges of unrequited love. 

Lamar Giles immerses the reader into the teenage world, and I give him a round of applause for his flawless and authentic use of social media throughout Del’s narrative. He captures the essential parts of our lives that apps such as YouTube and Instagram consume, and portrays the impacts those platforms have on our lives, large or small. He also places religion amidst the teenager-ness of it all, and how family and belief tie into the life of a coming-to-age teen. Overall, Giles’s novel has an important message of self-awareness, individuality, and learning from one’s mistakes. 

The novel begins in a church, where Del is hopelessly fawning over his love interest – Kiera Westing. She’s newly single, and with the help of fellow churchgoer Jameer, Del strikes a plan on how to win her heart. With an ill-conceived plan and even worse advice, he joins the church’s Purity Pledge to be closer to Kiera. Adeptly tied into the story are Del’s observations between Purity Pledge and the high school elective ‘sex-ed’ course, Healthy Living. The backbone of the novel, from which comes the complex growth of Del and other characters, is the debate on how sex is educated to teenagers, and if it should be educated at all. Del describes the two groups as wholly opposite, and he is shocked to learn through Jameer that the Pledge members aren’t allowed to take Healthy Living, with the exception of Del himself. Del becomes suspicious the church might be involved with censoring information to his fellow Pledge members. He eventually becomes caught up in helping his fellow members learn about sexual education. 

Both Del and the reader are taken through a shocking yet helpful fiction of how a lack of sexual education can be harmful. In Not So Pure and Simple, this harm is conceptualized into the rather abundant amount of teenage girls who had fallen pregnant at Del’s high school, and the ignorance the Pledge group demonstrates to Del. Whether you’re reading as a teenager or an adult, you will be moved to think in a new light by the writing. Giles does not tell you what to think but instead provides the reader with all the tools they need to make their own assertions.

The novel follows this pattern of events until it is clear to the reader how important it is to have their own independent beliefs and identities. Throughout Del’s chase for Kiera, he comes to the realization that seeing her as a prize to be won is a mistake. He learns not only how to respect himself, but how to respect others. His sister, who came across as a favourite in the story, is an emerging YouTuber who helps him come to this realization. She also uses her platform to fight against the discrimination and bias the pregnant women from Del’s high school face for having had children so young. Del learns from her that while some advice is good, some isn’t. A simple lesson, one might think, but Giles writes Del in a manner which the reader roots for him in his efforts to win the girl. The reader goes on the same journey and comes to the shocking realization alongside Del; that his actions were wrong. Del’s self-reflection is important, and he spreads the right message to teenagers who pick up this novel strictly to enjoy it for its pin-point accuracy in depicting teenage life.

A reader who is interested in a teen novel that doesn’t focus on only the drama will highly enjoy this pick. I recommend it for its palpable truth, its wide portrayal of the whole pieces that make up a person, and its appeal to the sense of righteousness every one of us has. That humane righteousness which makes it hard to see the truth sometimes. A discussion of hardships, religion, sex education, taking the right advice, and learning from one’s mistakes, Not So Pure and Simple lives up to its name, and its expectations.