Ambrose feels like Fern and Rita made a fool of him, a state of affairs which wounds Fern to the core. Naturally, the truth comes out at some point. In a nod to Cyrano de Bergerac, we see the lovestruck Fern writing love letters to Ambrose which ostensibly come from her beautiful but not-so-literary friend Rita. Known as Hercules, he is the town wrestling star and it’s well-known that multiple colleges will court him for his athletic ability. It’s a path still taken by many of the young adults in this country, but one that we don’t see portrayed in fiction nearly as often as college life.įern Taylor is shy and awkward – and in high school, she develops a huge crush on Ambrose Young.

Fern Taylor, Ambrose Young, and the rest of the cast in this book all grow up in small-town Pennsylvania and we see them progress from high school graduation into the military and the job market. The characters in this book are not young professionals trying to make it in the city, nor are they college students. Making Faces is essentially a New Adult novel, but it’s quite different from most others I’ve read. If you can get through the first few chapters, this is a rewarding reading experience. However, the good parts of this book are truly very good and particularly in the second half, some of the more emotional scenes are incredibly moving.

As with many self-published books I’ve read, this one would have benefited from tighter editing. I found Harmon’s book to be something of a mixed bag. I can’t recall why I picked up Making Faces, but I do remember it generating a fair amount of buzz about 5 or 6 years ago, so I suspect I downloaded it out of curiosity.

Making Faces by Amy Harmon