True Confessions of a Heartless Girl

True Confessions of a Heartless Girl (2002), a young adult novel by Canadian author Martha Brooks, is a coming-of-age story concerning a troubled seventeen-year-old girl who robs her boyfriend and leaves town. For True Confessions of a Heartless Girl, Brooks won the Governor General's Literary Award given for achievement in Canadian literature.

In Part 1, "The Stranger," it is a hot and stormy July night in the town of Pembina Lake. Seventeen-year-old Noreen Stall pulls up to The Molly Thorvaldson Cafe in a pickup truck. The owner of the cafe, single mother and divorcee Lynda Bradley, is about to close for the night, but she lets Noreen in anyway, serving her a cup of coffee. Sensing that Noreen has landed herself in some kind of trouble, Lynda offers to put the girl up for the night on her couch in the apartment connected to the cafe. That night, Noreen finds a slimy chicken leg on the couch and feeds it to Tessie, the dog belonging to Lynda's five-year-old son, Seth. The next morning, both Noreen and Tessie are sick. Noreen suspects she is pregnant.

Part 2, "True Confessions," is framed as a series of diary entries written by Noreen between the ages of twelve and seventeen. In the first entry, Confessions of Pride, the reader learns that Noreen lives with her mother, Amazing, her stepfather, Bob, and her nineteen-year-old stepsister, Gladys. It is Gladys' wedding day, and Noreen laments the fact that from that day forward, she will have to live alone with the alcoholic Amazing and the abusive pervert Bob. In the second entry, Confessions of Lust, fourteen-year-old Noreen seeks to escape the leers and insults of Bob, who calls her a "hooker" on her way out the door to meet her boyfriend, Brad. In Confessions of Sloth, fifteen-year-old Noreen is chastised by both Amazing and Gladys for skipping school. Noreen recalls moving in with Gladys and her husband Gerry at the age of sixteen to escape the physical abuse of Bob in Confessions of Anger. Seventeen-year-old Noreen drops out of school in Confessions of Covetousness, moving in with her boyfriend, Wesley, a working-class young man who lets Noreen do whatever she wants as long as she is never dishonest. After he catches her stealing from his hidden savings, she steals the rest of the money and his truck.



In Part 3, "The Wages of Sin," Noreen tells her story to Dolores, an elderly woman who works at the cafe. Dolores convinces Noreen to call Wesley. When Wesley arrives at the cafe, Noreen throws his money at him and tells him she never loved him. Wesley gives her some of the money anyway and says that if the baby is his, she can have his truck. Meanwhile, Tessie is taken to the vet who discovers chicken bone shards in her intestine.

That night, Noreen stays in an empty cottage being renovated by Del, a middle-aged man who is in love with Lynda. Waking up cold in the night, Noreen realizes she does love Wesley. She lights the fireplace but doesn't open the flue, so the fire spreads, burning some of Del's belongings, including a precious photo album. Possessed perhaps by a sixth sense, Dolores drives to the cabin and puts out the fire. When Dolores tells Noreen she forgot to open the flue, she realizes Noreen doesn't know what a flue is.

In the fourth and final part, "Star," Noreen gets a job at the cafe to pay back Del for the damage to his cottage. She also visits a doctor to get an ultrasound. She names her unborn baby "Star" because she thinks it looks like a star in the ultrasound. One day at the cafe, Noreen angers Lynda when she accidentally damages the walls of the cafe while trying to peel off the wallpaper. Ashamed of herself for all the problems she's caused, Noreen impulsively hops on a bus out of town but changes her mind after a few miles. It takes two hours for her to walk back to the cafe in the summer heat. Angry, Lynda eventually forgives Noreen at the urging of Del.



Before long, Del tells Noreen that her debt is paid. She calls Wesley who comes to the cafe, and the two sleep together that night. However, Wesley leaves in the morning when Noreen is still unable to tell him that she loves him. A few days later, on Lynda's birthday, Bleeding heavily, Noreen calls Gladys to apologize for breaking her promise to stay in school. Shortly thereafter, she bleeds much more into the toilet and feels certain that she has had a miscarriage. Wesley comes to Noreen's aid within an hour, and the next morning they go to the clinic where they learn conclusively that Noreen suffered a miscarriage. Amid this tragedy, Noreen finally finds the courage to tell Wesley she loves him.

True Confessions of a Heartless Girl is a stunningly mature and complex portrait of young adulthood.