Teens Gone Wild

Getting my YA Week book in just under the wire, although DC Trip is probably somewhere between YA and true Adult Fiction due to language (the group of mean girls is referred to as the “cuntriad” and the prefix is used a lot) and some of the trip’s shenanigans.

Sara Benincasa’s DC Trip focuses on a group of New Jersey teenagers who visit the Capitol for a high school trip; the narration bounces between shy Gertie and hippie teacher Alicia. Gertie finds out her summer camp crush, Danny, is also on a school trip and visiting several of the same museums in the area. Her best friends, Rachel and Sivan, begin devising numerous schemes to get Gertie in the same spot as her crush. Unfortunately Queen Bee Brooklyn and her minions, Kaylee and Peighton, are hell bent on ruining the girls’ fun. New teacher, Alicia, volunteered to chaperone to be close to the other teacher escort, Brian, who she embarrassed herself in front of at the start of the year. The trip, of course, changes everyone in just three short days.

There are several convenient plot details (which is apparently becoming an ongoing grievance of mine) that help move the story along to its happy ending. First of all, I refuse to imagine an entire Sophomore class going to a different state for three days only had two adults supervising. I had more adults than that on school trips to the aquarium… There are also several happy instances of right place, right time that only happen in YA books and romantic comedies.

If you want an easy breezy, somewhat adult beach read DC Trip checks all the right boxes. If you want to read a great, easy breezy, somewhat adult beach read Great by Sara Benincasa is probably a better choice.