Mary Jane is a quick, engaging read but also pretty simple minus some salacious scenes. Mary Jane is a 14 year old from a WASPy restrictive, racist household. She takes on a summer job as a nanny to 5 yo Izzy while her dad, Richard Cohen focuses his psychiatric treatment on famous rocker and heroin addict Jimmy. Jimmy and his uber famous girlfriend Sheba move in to the Cohen’s for the summer and unbeknownst to Mary Jane’s uptight parents, Mary Jane becomes the caretaker for the whole house and is exposed to all kinds of activities and people that cause the country club gossips to get their tongues wagging. Mary Jane shows incredible maturity, curiosity and acceptance which is surprising given her ultra religious and strait laced upbringing. I felt bad for Mary Jane - really coming of age and trying to balance two households with very different value systems. She is obedient to her parents but they drove me nuts with controlling behavior that would make anybody want to rebel. Fortunately in the end, Mary Jane’s mother comes around and starts to see her daughter for who she has become and can accept her and her famous friends better. Beanie Jones on the other hand, deserves allll the things she brings on to herself. Trigger warnings for infidelity, addiction, mild child neglect. Overall an easy read, landed somewhere bw 3 and 3.5 stars for me as I don’t see this one sticking w me long term.