Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, published by the Penguin Group.
So by now you may have noticed that most of the young adult books I read feature female main characters. In fact, it was strange to read Thirteen Reasons Why because most of it revolved around Clay Jensen. Twisted also featured a male main character: Tyler Miller, and it made me feel slightly uncomfortable. I suppose it's because I have more of a connection to females (being one myself) and when I read I immediately become that character. It's harder to feel like I'm inside the novel when it puts me inside a boy's head; I feel out of place and like a Peeping Tom. I think it's worse when there's a romantic interest involved because I feel like those are private thoughts and this boy won't like me knowing them. Ha, I know it sounds crazy, but that's how I felt whenever Tyler brought up his crush on Bethany Milbury. Poor Tyler, Bethany was his father's boss' daughter. Definitely not someone his family wants him dating, not even considering the degrees of separation their social statuses yield them.
I don't think I'll ever understand the way guys think and this book confirms that. Laurie Halse Anderson is AMAZING. She is in my top 3 favorite authors because 1] her style is unique and constantly changing, 2] she can write seriously about topics we've seen a million times and still make them fresh, and 3] she wrote Wintergirls which I LOVELOVELOVE. If you haven't read it, you must. It's a necessity. But back to Twisted. Main plot: Tyler is on probation and parole for doing graffiti on his school. He used to be "Nerd Boy" but since he was arrested everyone thinks he's a badass. That includes Bethany Milbury, a girl he has a crush on. They start spending time together, Tyler is infatuated with her until he decides not to take advantage of her when she's drunk at a party. Unfortunately, someone does take advantage of Bethany and Tyler takes the heat for it, even from his own father.
There are subtle implications of abuse from Tyler's father which kept me guessing throughout the novel as to whether or not he physically assaulted his family. For instance, "But it was not worth the nastiness that he would also inflict on my sister, who already had a tear slipping over the faded bruise from her black eye, and my mother, who was pouring herself the first tonic-free gin and tonic she'd had in weeks" (pg. 99). Although I know the black eye was a sports injury, it still sounds like the family is very scarred from the father. I wasn't sure if Anderson wanted to imply abuse but not show it, or if she neglected to explain either way for the majority of the novel as a message: physical or emotional, it doesn't matter; both forms are just as devastating.
Instead of making the novel just about Tyler and Bethany, Anderson went an opposite route after the scandal. She used that disappointment from Tyler to his father as a grounds for exploring the trust and love in the family. What's missing from Tyler's life isn't a girlfriend; it's his father's love and approval. Throughout the novel Tyler's innermost thoughts explore violence as a means of communication with his father. When he's angry he imagines doing the worst: "there was something in his voice that made me want to ram his head into the concrete foundation" (pg. 53). It seemed really unnecessary and brutal to me, but I didn't grow up in an abusive home. I remember when I was younger and my mom would throw one of her tantrums I would act out, I would scream and say I hated her, I would want to run away, but I never dreamed of hitting her. I think Tyler had a lot of pent up rage from being under his father's control but he was angrier about his mother and sister. He's a protector: he wants to protect the females in his family, and in the past he wanted to protect Bethany. When she was on crutches he picked her up and carried her to the bathroom as a sign of his compassion but also his strength.
Anderson's writing style is complicated and jagged, yet beautiful and smooth. She isn't afraid of literary techniques, such as the metaphor of the video game: Tophet to describe Tyler's voyage through hell, yet she doesn't force them down her reader's throat. She understands that she has to be rough in order to get one to feel the reality of the situation, yet she uses beautiful language and almost poetic short sentences to convey her point. Sometimes less really is more.
While Twisted may have been hard to swallow at some points, it was worth it to get a small glimpse into a teenage boy's mind.
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