MANILA, Philippines ? Ignore the date of publication, as ?I Hate My Mother!? by Perpilili Vivienne Tiongson (Cacho Publishing House, 2007), is a belated discovery in the young adult fiction genre, and deserves more than mere passing notice. With very few titles by Filipino authors in this category, a new title is reason to celebrate, especially with a title as catchy as this and a storyline that is engaging in its familiarity.

This first-person novel captures the confusion that confronts Belinda, the adolescent making sense of the adult world around her. She is bewildered and distressed about what she has magnified as one upheaval after another in her life. Yes, where nothing ever goes right.

She experiences the loss of her father but his words of advice live on, that in time she will understand and appreciate the wisdom of her mother?s words. And during the many instances when Belinda finds herself in conflict with her mother, she attempts and often fails, to figure out the wisdom that is supposed to be there. For the words sting?like when her mother, now the single parent complains about the many bills she has to pay, the mess that she and her sister leave in the house, and even blaming Belinda for getting sick because it meant an extra expense. The tension between mother and daughter heightens and Belinda finally accepts that it is an inevitable part of growing up. Her realization at the end of the story is a resolution of sorts, an acceptance without the cloying sentimentality of living happily ever after.

Contemplating on the person she had become, Belinda seriously wonders if that was the kind of person she really wanted to be. ?? if it weren?t for my animosity towards my mother, I was your average teenager trying to walk the line between childhood and adulthood ... If not for that (my hatred), I would be mediocre.? She likens herself to kids who took drugs to feel cool. And like them, she thought wrong.

Ambivalent feelings

The writer successfully captures the ambivalent feelings of adolescence with her well-chosen images and casual, readable style. The conflict with her mother is obviously the principal theme. There is nothing about her mother that does not elicit negative feelings from Belinda. There is a sharp contrast between her caring attitude towards her mother right after her father?s death (?And poor Mom. Without Dad, her laughter, her vigor and her poise were nowhere to be found.?) and in the years long after, when as a teen, her hostility grows. Her mother?s smile is described as the ?sneer just where the lips start to curl.?

It is amusing how the mother?s predictable words of wisdom are categorized into the ?grain-of rice? grand talk where no grain of rice is to be wasted; the ?when-I-was-your-age? spiel, the ?when-you-have-your-own-kids? theory. Which young reader cannot relate to these?

A slice of school life is seen through Belinda?s consultation session with Mrs. O. in the ?Boogers are Stalactites? chapter. It is she whose eyes could not be located through her bifocals, who brings up the apt metaphor in the story?that of a magnet with magnetic poles that attract and repel one another. Belinda?s science report pursues the question that intrigues her both academically and personally: Does gravity play a role in the attraction between two persons, leading to love-hate in human relationships?

Another important feature of the storyline is the attraction between Belinda and Ryan. That walk to her house after her abbreviated jeepney ride is the stuff of romance novels, especially when Ryan has to point out to Belinda that she has walked past her house, to her embarrassment. They experience their ?wow moments? and Belinda describes this encounter thus: ?? I felt awkward. It was like I could feel my lines of magnetic force pulling on his lines of magnetic force. It was the kind of thing I saw in movies, where the boy and the girl find each other face to face?.?

An endearing winning touch to the narration is the use?though sometimes overdone and contrived?of the teenage lingo that is punctuated with tapos, pero, kasi, kadiri, sensi, deadma, baduy, etc. This technique makes the reading less forbidding and truly cool.

The book uses black and white photographs instead of illustrations, but these are not always successful because they are not consistently sharp. Happily, they do not detract from the enjoyable read that this novel of 139 pages is.