Amazon.com Review
Many fine young adult novels about molestation have been built on a basic framework: a disturbed teenager hides a traumatic incident, suffers alone, and is finally healed when she is able to share her secret with a therapist or friend. The compelling titles in this genre include
When She Hollers, by Cynthia Voigt;
Telling, by Marilyn Reynolds;
I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This, by Jacqueline Woodson; and
The Hanged Man, by Francesca Lia Block. They are now joined by Julia Hoban's compassionate first novel,
Acting Normal. Eighteen-year-old Stephanie Holt wants to "act normal" at her new school, which means concealing her past career as an actress in TV commercials, her aspirations to be a "real" actor, and the terrible event in her recent past that has led to a year of institutions and psychiatrists. Her secretiveness separates her from the possibility of friendship until brash, sarcastic Dahlia takes her on as a buddy. With the help of many sessions with an understanding therapist, Stephanie is finally able to face the memory of the nanny who abused her when she was 5 years old--a memory that devastated her when it suddenly surfaced during an acting class. With newfound strength and a clearer understanding that she was not at fault for the abuse, Stephanie is able to help her friend Dahlia solve her problems with an older boyfriend, and to courageously embark upon her own plans to pursue acting. Teens with an interest in repressed memories and troubled childhoods will find Stephanie's revelation moving and inspiring.
--Patty Campbell
From Publishers Weekly
About nine months after her "full-fledged nervous breakdown," 18-year-old Stephanie, once a successful commercial actress, faces her most challenging role of all: acting like a "normal" teen when she enrolls at a New York City public school ("It was my return to the real world after the past year of never-never land"). She begins seeing a new psychiatrist, her third, and in her sessions she dances around the crisis that triggered her breakdown; readers, only slightly more clued in, know it has something to do with a lesson in method acting, and that Stephanie is mired in feelings of guilt and shame. After Stephanie builds her first-ever close friendship with a classmate and develops trust in her psychiatrist, she eventually discloses that a nanny had abused her (the memory of which surfaced in acting class). Details about Stephanie's relationship with the nanny are fuzzy, and it remains ambiguous also how much her parents and psychiatrist know about her childhood trauma. What come across most clearly are Stephanie's initial sense of contamination and the inner strength she draws on to rescue her friend from a sexual predator. Despite her atypical background and psychiatric history, Stephanie comes off as a relatively sensible narrator readers can trust; they'll also enjoy the convincing insider view of the professional actor's milieu. But Hoban's (the Buzby books) lengthy build-up and insufficient denouement weaken the narrative tension and may cause some members of the audience to lose patience with the protagonist's introspective sorting out of past events and present hang-ups. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
