High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background—average student, average looks, average dysfunctional family. But since he got busted for doing graffiti on the school, and spent the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, he stands out like you wouldn’t believe. His new physique attracts the attention of queen bee Bethany Milbury, who just so happens to be his father’s boss’s daughter, the sister of his biggest enemy—and Tyler’s secret crush. And that sets off a string of events and changes that have Tyler questioning his place in the school, in his family, and in the world.
For the next couple of weeks I will be reviewing the 15 Young-Adult Books Every Adult Should Read as chosen by Molly Horan. I will be reading them in no particular order as I do not own any of them and will be ordering them from the library! My first book is Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Twisted had the same premise of other young adult novels I have read where the main character is a teenage male. You have an angry kid with some seemingly normal home life but one slip up changes his life. In this case he does the “foul deed” as he calls it and gets arrested then ordered to do community service. During his community service he bulks up considerably and is now a bonafide hunk.
Predictably when he returns to school he gets the attention of the hottest girl in school. And bad stuff happens and he gets blamed. While that part of the book follows the normal patterns of most young adult books, the reactions of Tyler and the other supporting characters are more realistic than I have read. I liked that the people were relatable to your average person. The fact that Tyler doesn’t just magically accept his new found popularity or fully embrace his bad boy side and really struggles with his emotions is beautiful. I think it is important to show that males have all of these feelings and how hard it is to keep the emotions inside. When he snaps it just breaks your heart.
While I like the emotions created with the story I was a little bored. I hate saying that because I appreciate what the author was trying to do. And I understand why this book would be included in the lineup of books to read as a young adult but I would put Perks of being a Wallflower over this one to be honest. It’s a good book, I can see why people like it but it was just “eh” for me.
3.0 bards
Moving! 