Corinna Burdette

Character Analysis

On the surface, Corinna Burdette is your average thirteen-year-old girl, worried about average thirteen-year-old stuff—think: friends, boys, boobs, and her social studies teacher's horrific blue cheese breath. She likes to shop at The Gap, she plays soccer, and she's in the school band. Put one hundred eighth-grade girls in a room together, and a whole lot of them will fit Corinna's general description. The others will probably be over in the corner, listening to alternative music and dyeing their hair purple.

But Wait… There's More

Typical teen qualities aside, Corinna's actually in the middle of a giant tragedy: Her mother just died. So while all the other girls are complaining about what their moms expect and/or forbid, Corinna's just wishing she still had a mom. She feels alienated from everybody, and she's angry that of all the mothers on the planet, cancer chose hers. After all, Sophie Burdette was brilliant and talented and good. "My mom, Sophie Burdette, had a death sentence," Corinna tells us, "but she hadn't committed a crime" (3.72). Super unfair.

Diagnosed on April Fools' Day (unfortunately, it's not a joke), and dead in August, Corinna barely has time to grasp the fact that Sophie's sick before she's gone. In her English essay about the most memorable moment of her summer, Corinna writes about her dad giving her the news that Sophie had cancer:

I went numb. Numb inside and numb outside. All I could hear or think was, "three to six months, three to six months." Over and over, that's what my brain saw and heard, like those news tickers at the bottom of the TV screen that make it impossible to see anything else. (3.72)

Corinna's mom's diagnosis—and then her death—change absolutely everything. Just like that, life as she's always known it is over.

At Least I Have My Best Friend (or Not)

You'd think your BFF would be there for you in a moment of crisis, right? Yeah, not so much. Corinna and Joci have been "twins" since they were little kids, but when Sophie dies, Joci disappears. Corinna says:

Joci is supposed to be my best friend, but we haven't actually talked in what feels like forever. It doesn't seem possible that just six months ago we could almost read each other's minds […] We practically lived at each other's houses. She sent me a card a few weeks ago but, basically, she's been MIA for months. (3.31)

Oh man—in her time of need, Corinna's best friend has basically bounced. But wait, that's not all: Shortly after Corinna found out her mom was sick, she and her dad went to pick up Sophie's medicine at CVS one night. Joci just happened to be there, and Corinna told her what was up, begging Joci not to tell anyone else. But Joci told their other friends anyway. How could a friendship not be damaged after someone does something like that? Theirs certainly is.

It's not as easy as just walking away, though. "I'm mad at Joci for a lot of reasons," Corinna says. "But I also need her […] Being so mad at the person you want on your side feels terrible" (5.40). Complicating the issue is the fact that Corinna loves Joci's mom, and this is a girl who really needs a mother figure. Fortunately, she and Joci manage to patch things up, and although Corinna begins ninth grade nervous that they might have another falling out, she's glad to have her best friend back.

Are You There, God? It's Me, Corinna

Okay, so, boobs. Where are Corinna's? Nowhere to be found, thanks for asking. She's outgrowing her other clothes, but she still doesn't need a bra, and as for her period—yeah, that's not happening either. So as if she didn't already feel like enough of a freak for not having a mom, Corinna also has to stand around being flat-chested while her friends' bodies develop. She tells us:

I've been feeling more and more self-conscious about being flat when all my friends are filling out and moving from exercise bras to real bras. My body seems to be stuck. I've thought about what I could do to get it going but haven't been able to come up with any ideas. (21.44)

Sure would be nice if she had a mom to talk to about all this stuff, huh? All she can do, though, is stare at the container of Sophie's ashes on the mantel and silently ask, "When did you get your period? When you said you were a late bloomer, is that what you meant? When am I going to get mine? Almost all of my friends have theirs already. Is there something wrong with me? Does being sad make your period come later?" (12.19). Corinna feels really lost and lonely staring down her teen years without a close female confidante.

There's still no period by the end of the book, but she does get a bra, thanks to Joci's mom. After their trip to Victoria's Secret, she says, "I go to bed wearing one of them under my pajamas. I have some catching up to do, and I'm thrilled to be joining the bra sisterhood" (21.45). Like we said, Corinna doesn't just need Joci in her life—she needs Joci's mom, too, someone who can help her navigate these tricky years of changing bodies and raging hormones.

When Corinna has her first kiss with Alex, she feels a little more normal, hormonally speaking. She actually likes it, and her stomach feels all fluttery that night. This time, though, it's not an oh-my-god-do-I-have-cancer-too kind of fluttery—it's an I-might-just-be-a-normal-teenager-after-all flutter. This kind, obviously, is way better. And at this point, Corinna sets her grief aside for a little bit to enjoy the wave of happiness that kissing Alex brings her. She's starting to find her footing again after her mom's death, even if it leaves her feeling a little weak in the knees.