Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Pages: 250

Publisher: Viking Junvenile

Publication: March 20th 2007

Age Group: Young Adult (14-18)

Book Source: Borrowed

Challenge(s)- TBR Challenge(2012)

 Awards:

South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2010), ALA Teens' Top Ten (2008), Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award Nominee (2008), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2011)

    Just another high school senior, Tyler Miller. He isn't special, he's just there. But that's  never been a big deal to him. At least not until last year. He wanted to be remembered, counted for something. He wanted to be a legend. Not only a legend, he wanted to be a man. Now he strolls the halls, half of the people are scared of him or hate him, the other half love what he did. And his new body that he acquired from a summer of rough community service.

       

 This attracts the attention of Bethany.

Bethany Milbury. Queen of their high school. Queen of everything. Also, Tyler's secret obsession for the last couple years. She's his father's bosses daughter. She is the sister of Chip. Also known as biggest dumb jock in the school. whose hatred is out to get Tyler. 

       For Tyler everything is changing. His home life, his mom, his dad, his sister, Yoda, school, Bethany. His entire life is falling apart; its finally time he find his place. Is Tyler Prey, or Predator?

     This book  is definitely a Laurie Halse Anderson Book. Woah. You read this book thinking about Catalyst, Speak, and Prom... they are all set up the same and in everyone of these books by her she tackles new scary issues with great perspective. Anderson harnesses the feeling of guilt justice, and personifies it in all her novels At only 250 pages- I tore through this Stand-Alone novel in one night, and the end it left me very satisfied.

     In Twisted, I think one of the main themes is expectations. All of these expectations people set for us now-a-days. Even expectations we set for ourselves. The entire time reading this book all I could think about was not to long ago I had a friend run away for the night. Just to escape and save her sanity. On the outside, you really couldn't tell anything was wrong. You just can't tell. You can't ever know the whole story. So, you really have no right to judge- anybody- anyone but yourself. I think my friend judged herself so harshly she nearly went crazy lusting after perfection and being good enough, but how can we be good enough for anyone else, if we aren't good enough for ourselves.

     There are times when we put so much pressure on ourselves day by day by day until we just crack. Crack and fall apart. All of these expectations haunt us day and night, because truth be told, we cannot live up to these expectations. We can never be good enough to fulfill our own expectations that we set for ourselves. Because even if we fulfill our initial expectations, we set more and more. That's why I think they recognize perfectionist as almost a mental condition. Because as soon as we fulfill any  expectations, we make more and more.  When you get in that frame of mind, it is so hard to stop. Your mind cycles through thoughts of not being good enough and all these things you need to do, and it won't stop until you make it.

     This book is immensely important, it is about taking control. And taking responsibility. Admitting you are human. You cannot be perfect but you can be yourself- which is a million times better than being anyone else. As soon as you start relying on expectations- and realize it- something is seriously wrong.  Motivation is one thing, expectations is another. We need to expect we cannot be all we want to, and in no way do we need to.

“Everybody told me to be a man. Nobody told me how.” 

 “First thought: It was a dream
Second thought: No it wasn't
Third thought: Crap”

 “Mr. Freeman: You are getting better at this, but it's not good enough. This looks like a tree,but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breathe life into it. Make it bend - trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. 

Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.”

 “Death is funny, when you think about it. Everybody does it, but nobody knows how, exactly how.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson

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