"Twisted" by Laurie Halse Anderson

250 pages

Tyler Miller seemed like a pretty average guy. He wasn't in the in-crowd, but he had a few friends and wasn't on the bottom of the totem pole. Basically, he was invisible at school. Home was another story, though. Although he got good grades and stayed out of trouble, nothing was ever good enough for his harsh dad. Then, at the end of junior year, Tyler got fed up with everything and sprayed graffiti all over his school--and got caught. We learn of all this after we jump into the story as Tyler is just finishing his summer of community service. The hard physical labor of his work has transformed his scrawny frame into a muscular machine. When he begins his senior year, everyone notices him as they never have before. Some people think he's cool for vandalizing the school. Some think he's a jerk. Between his new body and his new reputation, people are thinking both good and bad things about him, but at least they're thinking about him. He's even caught the attention of Bethany, the hottest girl in school, and she seems to like him. Problem is, her twin brother rules the school and has it out for Tyler. When things get out of control at an unsupervised party, Tyler finds himself being accused of a crime. Things look especially bad, due to the graffiti incident, and his dad gets even more controlling. As things get worse and worse, Tyler begins to plot a way to get out of his messy life.

Laurie Halse Anderson is great at portraying (what seems to me) realistic teenagers. Sometimes their situations seem a little over-the-top, but the voices of the characters always ring true to me. Tyler is no exception. The story is told in such a way that I could sense the confusion and frustration he felt without him coming out and talking about it. I also loved many of the secondary characters, especially his friend Yoda and sister Hannah, and the relationships that Tyler had with them. As much as I liked the characters, I didn't care for the story itself as much. It seemed sort of choppy--nothing would happen for a while, and then all of a sudden everything changed. Also, I was unsatisfied with the ending. I don't think parts of it were explained well enough, and it seemed like the resolution came too easily. I think the book as a whole, though, is definitely something that many teens (and adults who remember having a hard time as teens) can relate to.