Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Unavailable
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature
Unavailable
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature
Unavailable
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature
Audiobook6 hours

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature

Written by Robin Brande

Narrated by Kaili Vernoff

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Your best friend hates you. The guy you liked hates you. Your entire group of friends hates you.

All because you did the right thing.

Welcome to life for Mena, whose year is starting off in the worst way possible. She's been kicked out of her church group and no one will talk to her-not even her own parents. No one except for Casey, her supersmart lab partner in science class, who's pretty funny for the most brilliant guy on earth.

And when Ms. Shepherd begins the unit on evolution, school becomes more dramatic than Mena could ever imagine . . . and her own life is about to evolve in some amazing and unexpected ways.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 28, 2007
ISBN9780739355749
Author

Robin Brande

Award-winning author Robin Brande is a former trial attorney, entrepreneur, martial artist, law instructor, yoga teacher, wilderness adventurer, and certified wilderness medic. Her novels have been named Best Fiction for Young Adults by the American Library Association. She was selected as the Judy Goddard/Libraries Ltd. Arizona Young Adult Author of the Year in 2013. She writes fantasy, science fiction, contemporary young adult fiction, and romance.   

Related to Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature

Related audiobooks

YA School & Education For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature

Rating: 3.825327639737991 out of 5 stars
4/5

229 ratings30 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    so many issues so well told
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    (a) not everything needs to have a romance in it. Why couldn't they be friends and have that be the end of it? Mena would still have enough Issues with her parents for socializing with a Boy without being all gaga over him.

    (b) This was written in 2007. There's a bit talking about how great someone is at web design because he used a bunch of blinking images. AAAAAHHHH 1995 called and they want their websites back.

    It's an interesting premise but it didn't light my world on fire--the Bible-thumpers are cartoonishly one-dimensional and Team Science is all scornful of organized religion (up until the Big Reveal that wasn't all that shocking, anyway). Obviously I finished the book anyway (it reads quickly) but it didn't really light my world on fire; a year from now I'll probably have forgotten I read this.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed most of the book - probably about 4/5 of it. But the ending? It is not the right one. When members of Mena's church treat a young man in a horrible manner because he may be gay thereby causing him to attempt suicide, Mena actually feels enough compassion to send him a letter of apology. She realizes it is a little too little, a little too late, but she is only 13 and it is the best she can do. As a result of the letter that she wrote, members of her church are sued and her parents business may be affected. She is severely punished by her parents. All her actions are restricted, she is ostracized by her old church friends, and her parents don't even talk to her. {Seriously? What kind of parents don't talk to their daughter, especially a daughter just entering high school. High school is a time with daughters REALLY need their parents!} So anyway, she has the best science teacher and the best lab partner ever and she learns some stuff about the evolution and herself. Her old church friends give the school and her teacher a hard time about teaching evolution without giving intelligent design equal time. Her teacher, who is a famous science blogger, sticks her ground and will only teach the science. Wouldn't you think at the end of the book, some of the church friends would start "seeing the light" and that reason would prevail and her parent would see what kind of idiots they are? Nope, that does not happen. Her parent never tell Mena they are proud of her for trying to do the right thing. They never tell her they are sorry for not talking to her. Her old church friends only get worse. And the book ends with the author trying to explain who knows what? I'm not really sure what she was getting at. I loved the Connors though - they rocked - Kasey, Kayla, and their mom. {And their dad and puppies too.}
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mena Reece did what she thought was the right thing but ended up being ostracized by her church and all her friends. In biology, her brilliant, slightly eccentric teacher pairs her with a brilliant, slightly eccentric guy. During the unit on evolution, her old church friends launch a protest. Mena, meanwhile, must discover how her beliefs reconcile with science, as she and her crush-inducing lab partner get caught up in the controversy. And what will she tell her parents?Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature tackles issues of morality, ethics, teenage doubt, and high school crushes, not to mention conflicts between science and religion, in a balanced, thoughtful, and entertaining fashion. Mena is an extremely well-written character, whose confusion is balanced by strong beliefs. This novel is about navigating the world within your own framework; how ideas and actions reflect who you want to be and what you believe in. It examines how new thoughts are not the enemy, although they do bring new challenges. Mena has a great cast of supporting characters, who help her learn how to speak up, and how to evolve. The story, especially the romantic plot line, develops very sweetly in spite of some very difficult and ugly events. For me, especially at the beginning, it echoed Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, but ended up being far less stark.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    For the sake of those deciding whether or not to read this, I will obscure details. This started out sort of pounding the same idea into your brain. I thought it was to build up to a larger point, and I thought that the other things that seemed contrary to this "larger point" I was expecting were building up to a counter-point. I thought this book was trying to say something about how people should be more tolerant of religious differences, or maybe that we should all try a little perspective...I don't know. Something thought provoking. Then I finished it, and the author totally burned the bridge and threw the balance of ideology right down the toilet in favor of sneakily removing proverbial lines in the sand so that there is no opposition between theists and atheist, just good Christians and not-as-good Christians, whose hearts are in the right place. Maybe I shouldn't have expected more open-mindedness. All in all it was poorly constructed.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    a delightful, snarky tale about a teen girl dealing with faith and science. The tale is particularly centered around creationist (intelligent design) vs evolutionists. My favorite quotes from the book:Even Christians can evolve -- Bible Girrrrll!andLying is for the weak minded, if you can't think of a truthful way to solve your problems you're not thinking hard enough.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I started this as an audio book and found myself mostly bored but sometimes shocked.Certain readers would likely take offense, while others might enjoy the mild suspense that comes from the author not telling what exactly the protagonist did to make her family and friends shun her. Her lab partner is a funny guy, and her biology teacher is intriguing.I may give it another chance in print, but for now, I'm moving on to other titles.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed reading this from Mena's emotional perspective. In the novel she actually talks about writing in "this" journal is a bit interesting and different from many first person narratives. I liked how she was many times modest about her little achievements and always placed herself as a cowardly figure, though she was not entirely cowardly the entire time. Her isolation since her friends began hating her changes her perspective on people in society, I suppose, yet she says she would sympathize with their situations if she were in their place. Overall her personality and thinking captures the reader into making this novel a quick read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The author get a few stars for the creativity of the topic of evolution and creationism but that's about it. The character Mena is somewhat likeable but not someone who I felt great sympathy for as she was bullied and bothered in school. I don't think the author did a good job of creating any depth to Mena's character but considering this is her first novel, it isn't bad. Teen readers might relate the Mena's problems at home and in school. This fairly quick read is definitely more for teens than any other readers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature is an enjoyable read that does not hold up under close scrutiny.Mena begins her freshman year of high school as an outcast. She's been kicked out of her church group for mysterious reasons, her parents seem to have turned against her, and her only friend is her nerdy lab partner. When her former church friends decide to protest the teaching of evolution at school, Mena has to choose whether she will take a stand against them.The book starts slowly. In the opening chapters, Mena's voice feels like a forced imitation of teenager speak, punctuated by awkward slang and an excess of the word "totally," as if this was the only way the author knew to characterize her as young. However, about fifty pages in, Mena emerged as a likeable, realistically flawed character, and the authenticity of her voice carried me through the book. I really believed that she was religiously conflicted, floundering at home, and struggling to process the new ideas her lab partner exposed her to. Unfortunately, the rest of the characterization felt off. Kayla, her lab partner's older sister, is obnoxious and not quite believable; Ms. Shepard, the science teacher we're suppoesd to love, seemed crazy rather than amazing. Mena's parents' reason for ostracizing her wasn't totally realistic, and the strained link Mena forges between the Bible and evolution is the weakest part of the book.But for all these flaws, I enjoyed reading it. The ideas the book espouses are not revolutionary for adults who've had time to think over their religious and scientific views, but for teenagers, they feel profound. As someone forced to reconcile her parents' more radical religious reviews with the dictates of reason, I found Mena's conflicts realistic and empathetic. Most importantly, I can't justify giving a poor rating to a book that left me feeling so good at the end.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The first three-quarters of this book were very enjoyable, which is way I'm giving it two and a half stars---even though the ending had to go and ruin it all.Mena starts out as a confused, lonely girl, looking for her place in her new school, in her family, in the world. It's a little annoying how she just lets everyone walk all over her in the beginning, but she's still likable because she recognizes her weakness and resolves to take steps to correct it. And she does get slightly better over the course of the novel---but in the end, not as much as this reader would have hoped.For one thing, she feels completely guilty about lying to her parents throughout the novel, even when she is fully justified in doing so, and eventually spills her guts to them. This doesn't really accomplish anything, except to make her feel better (and to assuage the author's guilt for promoting teenagers lying to their unreasonable parents).For another, her old friends from church consistently act like horrible bigots, culminating in the preacher actually telling her she ought to go kill herself---and just a few pages later, at the end of the book, Mena decides that they simply have a different point of view, no better or worse than her own. Umm, no, those people are hateful and evil---not to mention just plain wrong.The attempt to have it both ways regarding science and religion---i.e., reason and faith---is, well, retarded. No, Jesus did not believe in evolution; that's just ridiculous. And having the science teacher who got Mena interested in evolution (and science in general) in the first place turn out to be a church-goer herself at the end was particularly bad thematically, merely serving to validate the worst elements in Mena's character and arrest her transition from an unreasonable person to a reasonable one.This should have been a book about independence, in thought and action. Instead, it turned out to be a book enshrining abject conformity.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Robin Brande has done an exceptional job writing such a delicate subject, Evolution VS. Creationism, which she has depicted with such grace and delicacy that I don't think anyone could read this book and go away angry about the focus of the plot. Not to say that there wouldn't be any disagreements on it somewhere, as you can find on any subject today, but that she airs her views so lightly as to give an idea, not a lecture. Lovable characters, interesting idea, brilliant writing; everything you need for a great read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I wasn't sure about this book -- I read the dust jacket summary, it sounded interesting, but maybe not quite what I wanted to read. And then, well, I read it. And I have to say that Robin Brande is brilliant. Brande's story follows the freshman year of Mean, a quiet unassuming girl who thrust herself into the center of attention (not on purpose) and got kicked out of her church for doing what she believes is right. Similarly to Barry Lyga's novel Hero-Type, we don't know exactly what Mean did until halfway through the novel. This is probably the one thing that kind of annoyed me, because I kept wanting to know what she did, but I understand why Brande wrote the story the way she did. In a lighthearted (in some ways) and touching novel, Brande explores exactly what it means to be Christian and confronted with things that you used to believe in, but aren't sure about anymore. She turns her novel into one of the most compelling fictional descriptions of the differences of church and state -- as well as Christianity and evolution. There's obviously much, much more to the story than this, but th idea that Brande can write a brilliant coming of age story and mix it up with these serious themes is a clear endorsement of her skills as a writer. Not only did she keep me throughly entertained, but she did it in a way that felt neither patronizing nor preachy. I highly, highly recommend this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Read 253/265 pages.So far, it is about a girl named Mena who has become alienated from everybody around her because she is responsible for getting people she knew sued. This includesMena is a shy, insecure teenager who had just entered high school and has no friends. She never speaks up for herself and is always getting pushed around.I remember when i tattled on someone because i knew it was the right thing to do, that person got mad at me and so did their friends. They didn't talk to me for a while, but somehow we made up.The thing that i didn't like about this book is that it is taking too long to reveal the main problem of the story and the history behind it. I would recommend this book to book to teenagers who enjoy stories about high school and troubles that surround it.Someone that can play the main character in the movie Hilary Duff.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a really good, interesting story that is hard to describe. It's about Mena, who is a Fundamentalist Christian, but she has had a falling out with her church because she believes some of what they were doing was wrong. Now she feels very alone, except for her faith, and her eyes are being opened to new things. This is her quest to reconcile her faith with science, her relationship with her family, and her efforts at finding new friends yet staying within the confines of her religious beliefs. I really enjoyed this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book!!! There is always an undertone of the thought of evolution, while the main character tries to figure out if it's true or not. And of course, the puppies for her science experiment, and I love how she is sort of a geek!!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is laugh out loud funny, especially if you know a thing or two about science. Any science geek should read it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Mena's start of high school is probably the worst ever. Her former church group friends are slamming her into lockers and calling her names. Lunch hours are spent alone writing in her notebook and not eating, because she's been afraid to ask for lunch money at home. Yes, her parents are giving her the ice treatment at, too. Life becomes more interesting for Mena, though, when she is paired with the supersmart, science-nerd Casey Connors for biology. As a controversy over the teaching of evolution erupts in the biology classroom, and Mena spends more time with Casey and his family, Mena begins to form her own ideas about religion and science. As Mena's own life evolves in unexpected ways, she begins to understand that sometimes it is the freaks that survive. I liked this book, but thought the writing was just okay. I thought a lot of the characters were sort of cliched which detracted from the message of the story. The characters outside of Mena, Casey and Kayla were not very well developed as was the situation that put Mena outside of her circle of friends. It could be a great book, especially for church groups, to initiate some discussion of evolution v. intelligent design and how religion and evolution could coexist.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Robin Brande bravely tackles one of the religious dilemmas of our day: how to reconcile belief in God with belief in science, especially evolution. Main character Mena, recently ostracized from her very conservative church, is drawn to her new science teacher and even more attracted to her hunky lab partner, Casey. Well drawn main characters, though Mena's former pastor and some of her former "friends" are so negative that it stacks the deck against the anti-evolutionary side of the argument.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Mena's first day of high school is not unlike the one experienced by Melinda, from Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. She's completely ostracized by all her former friends, because she did something that she felt was right but pissed everyone off. But instead of calling the cops and breaking up a party, Mena wrote a letter apologizing to a young man victimized by members of her church for his suspected homosexuality. The letter resulted in lawsuits against the church, and now everyone hates her. Even her parents, who still belong to the church, are angry with her.Enter Casey, her new Biology lab partner, and Ms. Shepherd, her outspoken new Biology teacher, and suddenly Freshman year gets a lot more interesting. When Ms. Shepherd starts teaching a unit on evolution, the student church members and their families demand equal time for "intelligent design," kicking off a religion vs. science debate that leaves Mena struggling to reconcile her strong faith with the equally compelling facts Ms. Shepherd presents.While the religious zealots are portrayed as mean-spirited and close-minded, this book is not anti-religion but instead posits that faith in God doesn't have to preclude scientific reasoning, and even uses Bible passages to support that concept.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Mena Reece just knows her first day of school is going to suck. After all, she's the one responsible for getting her whole church sued... and for a million dollars, no less. Now her friends hate her, she's on permanent restriction, and even her parents are giving her the silent treatment. The one bright spot, well, the one possible bright spot, is her science class partner -- okay, so he's sort of geeky, but in a bright, cute, enthusiastic sort of way. Mena resolves to survive freshman year, but it's not going to be easy.Brande tackles a controversial issue with humor and heart. While the characters on the side of evolution are more well-rounded and sympathetic than the smart-mouthed, hypocritical, holier-than-thou members of Mena's church, religion doesn't come off poorly -- just small-minded people. And let's face it, we've all met people whose outlook on life is just as narrow as Mena's pastor and her former friends' -- although admittedly, Mena's parent's attitude is a bit disturbing. A readable, not too heavy-handed weigh-in on the side of evolution and religion.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I like how this book expressed the possibility of being religious while believing in evolution, since some people don't seem to realize that is a possibility. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that the religious characters were such extreme fanatics and were portrayed as being so evil. (They instituted a smear campaign against a supposedly gay student.) Any kid who is religious might be turned off by this extreme characterization and therefore may not be open to the final very worthwhile message of the book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    High school isn't starting out like Mena had always dreamed it would. Her friends aren't speaking to her because she's responsible for most of their parents being sued. She's been excommunicated from her church because she did the right thing and put a stop to the evil things her friends were doing. Her parents aren't even exactly speaking to her right now because her actions caused them to lose a big chunk of their business clients. The only bright spots in Mena's world are her new biology teacher, the brilliant and quirky Ms. Shepherd, and her lab partner, the super smart geek Casey. Mena's doing a project with Casey and he's determined to have the best project in their class. When Mena goes to his house to work on their project, she finds that Casey has an awesome, warm house and a loving family. But everything Mena has found becomes jeopardized when Ms. Shepherd announces that their next unit will be evolution. The church kids immediately turn their back on the class and demand that intelligent design be taught as well. Mena is stuck between her past and her future and the only thing that keeps her together is the knowledge that no matter how crappy everything is right now, she did the right thing. A thought-provoking novel that examines some pertinent issues. I literally could not put this book down. Mena is a great character dealing with some tough conflicts and I found myself rooting for her the whole way. Brande doesn't tell you what the church kids did that was so horrible until about halfway through the book and I was totally expecting it to be anticlimactic, but... it wasn't. Highly recommended.(I wouldn't be at all surprised if this book got some Printz attention...)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Mena makes the mistake of going against her church friends when they persecute a suspected homosexual in their middle school. The church turns against her family and Mena's life spirals out of control. Once school starts, Mena finds a new place for herself in Ms. Shepard's science class where she is befriended by Casey. Things really heat up as evolution becomes the topic, the church kids rebel, and Mena and Casey's friendship turns to something more.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is subject matter dear to my heart, and I love Mena's voice -- innocent, thoughtful, jaded, and hopeful all mixed up together.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Mena Reece is just starting her freshman year in high school, she has been cast out of her church, her church friends are alternately bullying her and ignoring her, and her parents are not speaking to her. The reason for all of this is not made clear until almost half way through the book. Her science teacher places her with cute science geek, Casey Connor, as her lab partner. Through her science teacher, Ms. Shepherd, and Casey and his family, Mena sees another way of life different from the strict Christian one in which she was raised. They both spark her interest in science, first with an important long-term science project that includes working with Casey’s adorable puppies, and then when the unit on evolution begins. The pastor of her church uses the Christian students in Mena’s class to launch a challenge against the evolution unit. When Ms. Shepherd begins to discuss Evolution, the Christian students turn their chairs around and ignore the lesson. The un-Christian-like behavior of Mena’s former friends seems to be a caricature of what liberals think of how conservative Christians act. [UNFINISHED]
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Natureby Robin Brande(My version was an audio book.)YA novel centering around 14yo Mena, a freshman girl who has recently gotten kicked out of her church and is now being frozen out by her parents. We slowly learn what happened to get her in trouble; the story is told in snippets as her day-to-day life plays out before us.She is a "good" Christian girl from a very conservative family. She has always hung out with the Christian kids and never caused any problems. That is until the day comes where she writes a letter of apology to a boy detailing the whys of how he came to be bullied by a group of her friends. That letter finds its way into the hands of the boy's lawyer, who then proceeds to sue a number of people in the community and her church...which is why she is now in the hot seat.Because she is now being ostracized by her "friends", she starts up a friendship with her science lab partner, Casey. They work on various science projects together, so she is able to spend time at his house with his family, including his older sister, Kayla. Kayla is intrigued by some drama going on with the high school science teacher and the Christian community's battle over teaching the theory of evolution without also teaching about intelligent design. Mena has to choose how involved she wants to get--and possibly getting into deeper trouble with her parents-- when she is asked to serve (anonymously) as "Bible Grrrl" for Mena's website, offering a new approach to looking at that particular controversy.There is also a sweet romance between Mena and Casey, but the debate between Creationism and Darwinism is the real focus of the novel, and ends up selling the thought of "Why not both?"After the novel (in my audio book version), there was also a conversation between the author and Prof. Miller from Brown University, the author of "Finding Darwin's God". Very interesting facts shared in the book and follow-up conversation and worth the read(listen).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed this YA read about a high-school freshman trying to reconcile her family's fundamentalist beliefs with her new friends' reverence for science (and sci-fi).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Freshman year begins as hell for Mena. Her old church group has ostracized her for something she did that got many of them in legal trouble, and she is the object of their ridicule. Even her parents want as little to do with her as possible. Mena’s only goal is to get through each day as quickly and quietly as possible, but that all changes when she befriends her lab partner, the incredibly smart and outspoken Casey Connor. Casey’s scientific expertise impresses and intimidates Mena, and she feels like she can never be worthy of his attention.Mena wants nothing more to do with her old crowd, but she can’t help being involved again when they begin to protest the school’s teaching of evolution in science class. Mena spoke up last time because she felt responsible for someone getting hurt. Will she find the courage within herself to stand up for what she believes in again?EVOLUTION, ME, AND OTHER FREAKS OF NATURE is a startling, controversial, humorous, and question-riddled read that is unlike anything out there. It makes science appealing, yet doesn’t blast religion like most books of its ilk are prone to do.While Mena is a rather infuriatingly passive protagonist, most of the characters are, indeed, well drawn—including Mena’s passivity. The so-called “Back Turners”—Mena’s old and horrendously close-minded church friends—are for the most part evil villain types, but the heroes and heroines are all extremely quirky, intelligent, and lovable. I wanted more action on Mena’s part, but I understand her position of fear, trying to hide from her old friends who now bully her. Mena’s relationship with her disappointed parents could have been more developed, but I appreciated how Brande is not claiming that science is superior to religion, or that the two cannot coexist. Overall, I really enjoyed this well-written and hopeful debut novel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So far this is one of the best books I've ever read! I love science so at first I was captured by the title alone… But the story line is excellent!! Mena is beginning her freshman year in high school, which she was excited about up until getting kicked out of her church. Although she struggles she tries her best to stay positive which I love!! Especially with Casey, her lab partner, there to help. This book keeps you guessing, I never knew what would happen next. It was never too revealing. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for something light. It was funny and interesting! I just couldn’t put it down!