I bought this book on a lark, feeling nostalgic for the books I read as a pre-teen and remembering this one as one that my BF and I would sneak back and forth between us. That's almost all I remembered about it though and I expected it to be an eye-rolling what was I thinking? trip down memory lane.

Only it wasn't - eye-rolling - that is. It was first published in 1979, but once you get past a very few things that date the book (pay phones and the scandal of "living in sin") what's left is an incredibly relevant story about an intelligent 15 year-old-girl who knows what she wants, isn't afraid to assert herself and is stuck between the parents who are afraid she'll have sex too early and the boyfriend who is afraid she won't.

And you know what? The author does a brilliant job of illustrating the stereotypical expectations of both males and females and gives us not only a strong protagonist, but a strong male lead too, who screws up and learns from it.

The best part is the ending that respects the story. I don't think I ever read anything else from Mazer, but I wish my younger self had; I suspect I missed out. ( )

UP IN SETH'S ROOM was really an outspoken book at the time. There weren't that many good YA books dealing with the issues of teens and the pressures of dating and sex. In this book: Finn is a 15 year old girl in high school (important to note that she is a virgin) and she meets Seth, a 19 year old high school dropout. She starts hanging out with him and then starts to like him. Her parents forbid her to see him and her friends are against the relationship. As we all know, that usually doesn't make you break up any faster! It's interesting here to note that her parents weren't speaking to her older sister as she was living "in sin" with her boyfriend.

As the story goes on, Seth starts to pressure Finn to have sex and she's not sure she's ready to do that. The story is mostly about her struggle to stay true to her belief that she should stay a virgin and her desire to do more and 'prove' her love to Seth.

The character of Seth starts out as very sweet, smart and nice and morphs into...a jerk. There is a point where it is said that "that's how boys are". I think that was a sign of the times and really, boys weren't held as responsible as girls were for their sexual conduct. It makes for an interesting read compared to the things we're all reading now. Give it a shot and tell me what you thought. As a teenager I really liked it, as an adult I'm appalled by it. ( )