Title: The Virgin Diaries

Author: Compiled and Edited by Kimberley A. Johnson & Ann Werner

Publisher: Ark Stories

Pages: 228 paperback

My Rating: 4/5 stories

Source: I recieved and e-copy of this book from the author in exchange a for an honest and thoughtful review

What’s it like to have sex for the first time? Seventy-two people, young and old, gay and straight, responded to the call for answers and those answers are in The Virgin Diaries. This candid collection of stories provides a unique opportunity to be a fly on the wall. There is no commentary. The stories stand on their own, allowing the reader to form his or her own conclusions. Whether you are a virgin and desire to make an informed decision or are looking for a walk down Memory Lane, The Virgin Diaries offers confidential insights into one of life’s most personal experiences.

This review is going to be a little different because this is a book so unlike anything else that I have ever read before. My blog is a Young Adult book blog. Every now and then I may stumble into the “adult” world with an Adult/Young Adult crossover book but that doesn’t occur often. Something that happens even less often than that would be me testing the waters of educational books. I read the required material for my classes but I hardly go out looking for educational books for fun. However, when a review request came along for this book, I instantly said yes. This book is the real life, true accounts of many people’s first time experience with sex. If TV and media teaches us anything, it is that sex is a wonderful, passionate, experience that is highly enjoyable for both partners ESPECIALLY if it is their first time ever doing it. *Laughs at the craziness of that whole last statement* This book breaks through the image that Hollywood has imprinted in the minds of today’s teenagers. This book allows us to feel and understand exactly what people went through during their first sexual encounter. Now before you all get embarrassed (for yourself or for me) please let me explain that this book is in no way pornographic and it stays relatively clean considering the subject matter. The people who volunteered their stories were asked a series of questions. “What age were you during your first encounter?”, “Did you have any advice from parental or religious figures?”, and “Is there any advice you would give to virgins?”were a few of the many wonderful questions that were asked. Their answers to these questions were compiled and edited to create The Virgin Diaries.

Okay now that you know what this book is about and exactly how it is different than any other book I have read, I will try and review it to the best of my ability. Since these are peoples’ initial responses to questions they were asked and it is their own personal experiences that they so bravely shared with the general public, I will not be judging their individual stories. Instead, I will be talking about the importance of this book.

I come from a very open family. We say what is on our mind and us kids know that we can talk to our parents freely about anything including sex. I am very aware that this is not the case for many others and that fact alone is made even more prominent after reading this book. I read through SEVENTY-TWO stories that people shared. Out of those 72 people, how many of them do you think had an open relationship with their parent about sex? You may or may not be shocked by the answer but it is close to none. They often times didn’t get advice from parents or adult figures, no knowledge was shared on the topic, and birth control was not something that was ever talked about. I find this whole idea just absolutely ludicrous! How could parents allow their kids to be so ignorant on such important matters such as STD’s and pregnancy? For the people in this book that had no advice from adult figures, I am deeply saddened that they did not have a book like this available for them to utilize.

Some stories included in The Virgin Diaries have happy endings; some of them were awkward and embarrassing. Other stories broke my heart, while others made me squirm a bit. However, I still feel that this book could be a very important tool for parents to use when talking to their kids about sex. I am well aware that EVERYONE’S parenting style is different and I truly do not mean to offend any parents that are reading this but come on! You have to talk to your teenagers!!! You can’t just throw them a box of condoms, tell them that abstinence is best and then expect everything to turn out hunky-dory. Us teenagers are confused, interested, and curious by nature. We don’t always use our head and we sometimes need parental guidance whether we want to admit it or not. This is exactly why I feel that books like The Virgin Diaries are printed. It is so parents can use it to help ease them into what is sure to be the most awkward conversation of their life. Reading other people’s first-hand encounters allows you to think about what happens emotionally and physically. The questions that were asked and everyone’s responses allowed us to see the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of sex. While not all first time encounters are unbearable, we do learn that losing one’s virginity is not all satin bed sheets and roses and that is something a “birds and the bees” type of conversation just wont cover.

I know that this is a bit of an unconventional review but there was just no other way of putting it. This book and the subject it covers is just entirely too important to shove aside. Would I hand this book out to every random, young teen on the street? Heck no! Some people have the maturity level of a 5-year-old. Would I give this book to parents of teenagers? Yes. A million times yes. I would give it to them to read alone, with their child, or at least allow them to use it as a tool to start talking to their kids about sex.