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Title: Girl Walking Backwards by Bett Williams ISBN: 0312194560 Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback Pub. Date: October, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75
Rating: 5
Summary: Damn good book!
Comment: The best writing seems like it was almost effortless... that's certainly the case here. The book reads so smoothly and so quickly, it feels as though it was written in one night.
Skye, a fifteen year-old girl who's dealing with a ton of stuff all at once, is a great character. She's tough enough to earn our admiration, but human enough to make you wince every time something bad happens to her. Through her, the book deals with issues of self-mutilation, discovering one's own sexuality, New Age cultism, drugs, friendship, sex, and all the usual highlights of being 15. This is no After School Special, though, and the book does not preach to the reader or try to force all-encompassing conclusions upon complex issues. The author is confident enough (and wise enough) to let the reader reach his/her own conclusions. She also avoids the "easy epiphany" pitfall. This book has no easy answers.
More than anything, though, this is a fun book. That's largely because Skye, though fallible, is such a likable character.
I would recommend this book especially for anyone in junior high school or high school, although it's perfectly suitable for adults as well. Writers like Judy Bloom, though wonderful in their own way, fail to address truly contemporary themes for teenagers. This book fills that void.
Final comment: I very much appreciated that the whole homosexual/heterosexual thing was addressed so realistically. There may be some people for whom it's a simple yes/no dichotomy, but most people I knew back in high school weren't nearly so one-way-or-the-other. It's nice to read a book about a lesbian who doesn't think of herself as "a lesbian" but rather as herself. She's Skye. Who she sleeps with (or wants to sleep with) is only one small part of who she is.
Really, really good stuff.
Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting and depressing story
Comment: I thought the book was very well-done, descriptive and easy to read. I found myself glued to the story, not wanting it to end. I also think it was true to life in many ways, and the author caught the pain and confusion of someone trapped in their own head. I recommend it!!
Rating: 4
Summary: Entertaining, but obviously by a very young writer
Comment: I enjoyed this novel a great deal. It was entertaining and engrossing, sometimes erotic. As a teenager myself (16) I can relate less to the turbulant sex-and-drug-drenched world the author depicts, and more to her style of writing. Bett Williams is obviously an extremely talented writer (some selections of her prose are astoundingly poignant) but she also shares the self-absorbed dramatization of everything in her writing that is characteristic of youth. Each "gothic" character was depicted as achingly beautiful, each description of each outfit and eyeliner described as if it were art in it's highest form, each syllable uttered by each character took on almost too much meaning. While suitable for perhaps the description of Jessica because the main character is so obsessed with her, it becomes almost tiring to keep reading about these 'profoundly' beautiful people. And cynic that I am, I never imagine them in my head as quite as beautiful or romantic as Williams probably would like me to; instead I imagine that they like to think of themselves in such a way. The book gets better farther along, and I was surprised to find a great deal of depth in Skye by the end. (Who's very name smacks of a teenager's main character) However, with mention of Doc Martins and goths, it will not be long before this book will become extremely dated and almost cringely-embarrassing to read. (it's never fun to read how self-important we are in our youth) However, read it. It's enjoyable and entertaining, and although it doesn't reach the level of depth I think it strove for, I am positive that Bett Williams is capable of such a novel in the future.
-Liz
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Title: Annie on My Mind (Aerial Fiction) by Nancy Garden ISBN: 0374404143 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (Juv) Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: Dare Truth or Promise by Paula Boock ISBN: 0395971179 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co (Juv) Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Sister Safety Pin: A Novel by Lorrie Sprecher ISBN: 1563410508 Publisher: Firebrand Books Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (Native Agents) by Michelle Tea ISBN: 1570270740 Publisher: Autonomedia Pub. Date: 01 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Valencia by Michelle Tea ISBN: 1580050352 Publisher: Seal Pr Feminist Pub Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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