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"My stomach relaxed as if that one sound, her laughter, was what I’d been secretly hungry for my whole life."
I first fell in love with author Laurie Halse Anderson in highschool when I borrowed my sister's copy of the incredible Speak. Recently I have been rediscovering YA lit, and after reading Wintergirls I knew that Speak was not a fluke and Anderson is amazingly talented. With that in mind I decided to check out another one of her books, Twisted, at the library hoping it would be as fantastic as the other two. Although it is my least favourite of the three books by Anderson I have read, I would still recommend it, especially for teens who feel like they can't get anything right and the whole world is against them (isn't that all of us?)
Rambling aside, Twisted is the story of high school senior Tyler Miller, awkward nerd turned buff rebel after a summer doing outdoor work to pay for an act of vandalism he committed. With his new body comes new possibilities- like the fact that the beautiful Bethany, who also happens to be his father's boss' daughter and the sister of his biggest enemy, might actually be paying attention to him. Tyler's crush on Bethany leads to a chain of events which result in false accusations and the risk of jail time, nevermind his father's chances of keeping his job now. My favourite thing about Twisted was Tyler's voice, it really felt like Anderson got into the head of a teenage boy. At times Tyler was funny, emotional, or just horny, but I was always interested in what he was thinking. Anderson also doesn't shy away from tough issues- the other two books I've read by her deal with rape and eating disorders- and Twisted is no exception. In this book Anderson takes on the big question of what does it mean to be a man?
Where Twisted failed to live up to Speak and Wintergirls is the emotional depth of the novel, especially when it comes to Tyler's dysfunctional family dynamic. His parents sleep in separate rooms while his father delves into work, his mother into her gin and tonics. Unfortunately Anderson wraps up the plot line involving Tyler and his father a little too neatly and predictably for my liking, and after spending so much time developing the family's problems I felt could have spent a little more time on the conclusion. Although I will stay away from spoilers, I will say that I did enjoy how things turned out between Tyler and Bethany, and felt that the situation was realistic in that regard.
Twisted also explored the nature of cliques and what it means to be popular, as well as how it feels for an outsider and I did find Anderson's insight into high school life to ring true. What I found less believable was Tyler's sudden emotional self-discovery- I just didn't quite believe he'd been pushed far enough to break yet and it seemed like maybe Anderson was in a rush to wrap things up rather than go deeper.
I really enjoyed Twisted when I was reading it, but after letting it soak in for a day or two I continue to find aspects lacking- for example I would have been curious to know more about Bethany's motivations and feelings. On the surface, Twisted is a fun book to read, but when you start to look at the layers underneath it just doesn't have the depth of Anderson's other books. Many of the characters including Tyler's mother and father often feel one-dimensional and have sudden transformations. In addition, the source of the title felt slightly tacked on and I'm not entirely convinced it was the right choice. Despite the fact that I didn't feel the emotional connection to Twisted as I have to Anderson's other books, I did enjoy it, because, simply put- it's a fun book to read. And sometimes, that's all you're looking for.***
I first fell in love with author Laurie Halse Anderson in highschool when I borrowed my sister's copy of the incredible Speak. Recently I have been rediscovering YA lit, and after reading Wintergirls I knew that Speak was not a fluke and Anderson is amazingly talented. With that in mind I decided to check out another one of her books, Twisted, at the library hoping it would be as fantastic as the other two. Although it is my least favourite of the three books by Anderson I have read, I would still recommend it, especially for teens who feel like they can't get anything right and the whole world is against them (isn't that all of us?)
Rambling aside, Twisted is the story of high school senior Tyler Miller, awkward nerd turned buff rebel after a summer doing outdoor work to pay for an act of vandalism he committed. With his new body comes new possibilities- like the fact that the beautiful Bethany, who also happens to be his father's boss' daughter and the sister of his biggest enemy, might actually be paying attention to him. Tyler's crush on Bethany leads to a chain of events which result in false accusations and the risk of jail time, nevermind his father's chances of keeping his job now. My favourite thing about Twisted was Tyler's voice, it really felt like Anderson got into the head of a teenage boy. At times Tyler was funny, emotional, or just horny, but I was always interested in what he was thinking. Anderson also doesn't shy away from tough issues- the other two books I've read by her deal with rape and eating disorders- and Twisted is no exception. In this book Anderson takes on the big question of what does it mean to be a man?
Where Twisted failed to live up to Speak and Wintergirls is the emotional depth of the novel, especially when it comes to Tyler's dysfunctional family dynamic. His parents sleep in separate rooms while his father delves into work, his mother into her gin and tonics. Unfortunately Anderson wraps up the plot line involving Tyler and his father a little too neatly and predictably for my liking, and after spending so much time developing the family's problems I felt could have spent a little more time on the conclusion. Although I will stay away from spoilers, I will say that I did enjoy how things turned out between Tyler and Bethany, and felt that the situation was realistic in that regard.
Twisted also explored the nature of cliques and what it means to be popular, as well as how it feels for an outsider and I did find Anderson's insight into high school life to ring true. What I found less believable was Tyler's sudden emotional self-discovery- I just didn't quite believe he'd been pushed far enough to break yet and it seemed like maybe Anderson was in a rush to wrap things up rather than go deeper.
I really enjoyed Twisted when I was reading it, but after letting it soak in for a day or two I continue to find aspects lacking- for example I would have been curious to know more about Bethany's motivations and feelings. On the surface, Twisted is a fun book to read, but when you start to look at the layers underneath it just doesn't have the depth of Anderson's other books. Many of the characters including Tyler's mother and father often feel one-dimensional and have sudden transformations. In addition, the source of the title felt slightly tacked on and I'm not entirely convinced it was the right choice. Despite the fact that I didn't feel the emotional connection to Twisted as I have to Anderson's other books, I did enjoy it, because, simply put- it's a fun book to read. And sometimes, that's all you're looking for.***