Review: Twisted

Anderson, Laurie Halse (2007). Twisted. New York: Viking, 250 pages.


Summary & Evaluation: Tyler was the kid in school who was constantly picked on until he did the "Foul Deed"--but after paying his debt to society through community service and enduring the punishment of working as a landscaper over the summer, Tyler returns to school stronger than the bullies and with the new reputation that comes from perpetrating the "Foul Deed." Soon Bethany Milbury, the hottest girl in school--and unluckily for Tyler, the sister to Tyler's tormentor and daughter to the boss of Tyler's father--takes notice of Tyler and starts to come onto him. But after a bacchanal party, pictures of a dead-drunk and nude Bethany Milbury surface on the internet, and Tyler finds that his new persona and the "Foul Deed" begins to haunt him again as doubt is cast on his self-proclaimed innocence.

I thought Saint Iggy was a heart breaker, but this book almost had me in tears by its end. Laurie Halse Anderson takes Tyler from his previously wimpy and pariah-like figure, builds him up into someone seen as mysterious and dangerous by his classmates and sought after by the hottest girl in the school (isn't that what every teenage boy wants?), and then drives him right back down into the mud--even lower than he was when he started, more dejected and faced with a situation that seems like there's no way out of. Adding on to the already perilous situation of being accused of another crime, Tyler is forced into confrontation with his father, who cares more about his work than he does his family. Halse Anderson uses this situation in expert fashion, examining the character of such a man and his impact on his maturing son--a son who is physically stronger than his father, and is struggling to become emotionally stronger.

Booktalk Hook: When I got to the part of the book where Tyler almost commits suicide, the book had me reading as quickly as I could--it was such a perfect crescendo to the plot line, and I had no idea how it would play out. Would he do it? He certainly had reason enough to. For the booktalk, I'd have a hard time not reading pages 209-210, where this monumental struggle begins.