Becca's Book Review: Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson

A Twisted Review
By Becca C.

If one thing is true, it’s that very few books appeal to every type high school student. After reading “Twisted” by Laurie Halse Anderson, it’s easy to tell why this is one of them. Anderson is able to combine the life of a teenage boy, and the drama teen girls thrive on to make a gender neutral page turner. The book has an underdog feeling to it, yet doesn’t turn the popular kids into “mean girls” and there’s some life aspect that you will find you’re personally going through.

The story is about a high school senior by the name of Tyler Miller. Picked on during his middle school years, he decides to make himself a legend and end the torment for high school. He eventually suffers for his stunt. While paying his debt to society, Tyler also has to deal with his growing attraction to the popular girl at school, an ashamed, over bearing father, a sociallite sister going out with his best friend, and an effective solution to his bullies. He even develops a reputation that makes him the cops go-to-guy when the giant scandal goes down, and yes, it’s a huge shock.

Anderson has the inept ability to blend family issues, peer drama and inner battles without making it a giant cliché. There’s enough fights and female anatomy to keep the guys happy, but enough emotion and social strains to keep chicks interested. It’s easy for anyone to relate to this book. Whether you’ve ever been the butt of everybody’s joke and the target of everybody’s hits, had a giant thing for the cool kid, had the urge to do something reckless, had an unbearable home life, or even had the desire to end it all, you will find something that links your life to Tylers.

There are even some life lessons snuck inbetween the lines. Things like your actions will come back to haunt you and to be responsible are learned through the characters the hard way; Through public humiliation, social isolation and hard labor. It makes you think about how your actions will effect you in the future. You begin to question whether or not the perfect kids are really that perfect.
One of the most important things about the book is that it’s new. Released in 2007, there aren’t any references to how “groovy” the Brady Bunch is. With the exception of the geek’s universe aka Star Wars, everything in the book is all recent events. Everybody already knows that KISS is really ugly when they take off their makeup.

If you couldn’t already guess, I really suggest that you read this book. “Twisted” isn’t just for one type of person. Girls, boys, happy, sad, cowboys and indians will enjoy this book as much as I did.