I was debugging a particularly stubborn procedural dungeon generator at 2 AM - the kind of session where you've stopped caring about elegant solutions and just want the thing to compile - when I realized I needed something to listen to that wasn't another epic fantasy weighing in at 40+ hours. Sometimes you need a palate cleanser. Something short. Something human.
So I threw on a Judy Blume classic I'd somehow never experienced, and three hours later I was sitting there, code forgotten, genuinely moved by a book about a sixth-grader worrying about her first bra.
The Magic System Here Is Just... Being Twelve
Look, I spend most of my listening time in worlds with intricate power systems and detailed cosmologies. Brandon Sanderson has trained me to expect rules and progression and satisfying payoffs. But Margaret Simon's coming-of-age story operates on a different kind of magic entirely - the terrifying, confusing, utterly ungovernable magic of puberty.
And honestly? The world-building here is chef's kiss in its own way. Blume constructs the social hierarchy of suburban New Jersey circa 1970 with the same precision Tolkien brought to Middle-earth. The secret club. The exercises. (You know the ones. "We must, we must, we must increase our bust.") The desperate need to be normal when you're not even sure what normal looks like.
What got me was Margaret's conversations with God. They're not formal prayers - they're more like... DMs to the divine? She just talks. Complains. Asks questions she knows won't get answered. As someone who grew up in rural Georgia where everyone assumed you had your religious identity sorted by age ten, Margaret's genuine confusion about faith hit different. That same tension between external expectations and internal truth shows up in Power, though in a much darker context. She's got a Christian mother, a Jewish father, and grandparents pulling her in opposite directions. The kid just wants to figure out what she believes, and nobody will let her do it on her own terms.
Laura Hamilton Understood the Assignment
Here's the thing about narrating a book from a preteen girl's perspective - it could go so wrong. Overly precious. Condescending. That weird thing where adult narrators do "kid voice" and it sounds like a cartoon character.
Laura Hamilton doesn't do any of that. Her Margaret is perky and uncertain in equal measure, questioning everything but still enthusiastic about life. The voice shifts between characters are subtle but distinct - you can tell when Margaret's talking to her grandmother versus her new friends versus, well, God. The emotional delivery during Margaret's moments of insecurity - worrying about being the last one to get her period, feeling like a fraud at both temple and church - captures all that subtle angst without overdoing it.
If I had to compare it to fantasy narration (because of course I do), Hamilton's approach reminds me of how the best audiobook performers handle internal monologue. She makes Margaret's private thoughts feel genuinely private, like you're eavesdropping on someone's most embarrassing diary entries. Which, essentially, you are.
My D&D Group Would... Actually, No
I'm not gonna pretend this is a book I'd recommend to my usual crowd. My D&D group is not the target audience for a story about bra shopping and menstruation anxiety. (Though honestly, some of them could use a refresher on how to write female characters that feel like actual humans, and Blume would be excellent homework.)
But if you've got kids in that awkward pre-teen zone? This is essential listening. The book handles puberty with such matter-of-fact honesty that it's genuinely useful - like a conversation starter that doesn't feel like a lecture. At just over three hours, it's perfect road trip length. Short enough to finish in one sitting, substantial enough to stick with you.
Parents who grew up reading this will probably get emotional. I didn't have that nostalgic connection and I still found myself unexpectedly invested in whether Margaret would finally get her period before the end of sixth grade. (No spoilers, but the payoff is satisfying in a very human, non-epic-fantasy way.)
Skip If You Need a BBEG
If you need magic systems, skip it. If you need action, skip it. If you're uncomfortable with frank discussions of puberty - and I mean really frank, like "what do pads feel like" frank - this isn't for you. But if you want three hours of genuinely good writing about the universal experience of feeling like everyone else got a manual for growing up and you somehow missed it? Yeah. This one's worth your time.
Natural 20 on the Feels Check
I finished this book and immediately texted my mom. Not about anything specific - just to say hi. There's something about Margaret's relationship with her grandmother, the way she navigates family expectations and her own identity, that made me want to connect with the people who watched me stumble through my own awkward years.
That's not nothing. For a three-hour audiobook I picked up on a whim at 2 AM, that's actually pretty remarkable. Judy Blume earned all those awards. And Laura Hamilton's narration ensures this version is the definitive way to experience it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a thesis to pretend to work on.
