Hard Love

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Hard Love
Original paperback cover of Hard Love.
Author	Ellen Wittlinger
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Young adult novel
Publication date	1999
Followed by	Love & Lies (Ellen Wittlinger)

Hard Love is an award-winning young adult novel written by author Ellen Wittlinger. It was published in 1999.

[edit] Plot introduction

John, untouchable since his parents' divorce six years ago, and Marisol, who's recently come out as a lesbian, meet through their interests in writing zines, personal homemade magazines into which they pour their life stories.

[edit] Characters

John Gallardi Jr.

John is a 16 year old boy, immune to emotion, partly because his father cares more about himself than John, and his mother is very emotionally distant due to his supposed resemblance to the aforementioned absentee father, who divorced 6 years ago. Quiet, reserved and intellectual, John is different from most of the boys in his high school due to the fact that he isn't attracted to girls yet. His best (and only) friend's name is Brian, who is very different from him. In his spare time, John likes to write zines and write about his parents divorce and all the stuff happening in his life.

Marisol Guzman

Marisol is a lesbian who has accepted herself for what she is. She is adopted. She is short and wears what would be describes as gothic attire (black nailpolish, black clothes) etc. She is a reserved person and doesn't like people to get too close to her; by choice, she has only a few close friends, notably Birdie, her close confidante and homosexual friend, and John. She writes 'Escape Velocity', a zine which John likes very much and which leads to a meeting between them. A surprising friendship develops between her and John.

Brian

Brian is Johns best friend, however they are both very different. Brian is already into girls and is awkward around them. He ends up dating a girl named Emily, a freshman he meets while trying to make his existence known to Violet Neville, a girl he has been obsessed with for over 6 years but who he eventually turns from after finding she is rather shallow.