Twisted [Paperback]

Laurie Halse Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 15, 2008

Another New York Times bestseller from Laurie Halse Anderson! High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background. But since he got busted for doing graffiti on the school, and spent the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, he stands out like you wouldn?t believe. His new physique attracts the attention of queen bee Bethany Milbury, who just so happens to be his father?s boss?s daughter, the sister of his biggest enemy? and Tyler?s secret crush. And that sets off a string of events and changes that have Tyler questioning his place in school, in his family, and in the world.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–Socially inept Tyler Miller thinks his senior year of high school is going to be a year like no other. After being sentenced to a summer of character building physical labor following a graffiti prank, his reputation at school receives a boost, as do his muscles. Enter super-popular Bethany Milbury, sister of his tormentor, Chip, and daughter of his father's boss. Tyler's newfound physique has attracted her interest and infuriated Chip, leading to ongoing conflicts at school. Likewise, Tyler's inability to meet his volatile father's demands to be an asset, not a liability adds increasing tension. All too quickly, Tyler's life spirals out of control. In the wake of an incident at a wild party that Bethany has invited him to attend, he is left feeling completely isolated at school and alienated at home, a victim of twisted perception. Tyler must tackle the complex issues of integrity, personal responsibility, and identity on his own as he struggles to understand what it means to be a man. His once humorous voice now only conveys naked vulnerability. With gripping scenes and a rousing ending, Anderson authentically portrays Tyler's emotional instability as he contemplates darker and darker solutions to his situation. Readers will rejoice in Tyler's proclamation, I'm not the problem here…I'm tired of feeling like I am. Teenage concerns with sex, alcohol, grades, and family are all tackled with honesty and candor. Once again, Anderson's taut, confident writing will cause this story to linger long after the book is set down.–Erin Schirota, Bronxville Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Tyler Miller was a socially invisible nerd ("Your average piece of drywall who spent too much time playing computer games") before he sprayed some attention-getting graffiti and became a legend. Sentenced to a summer of physical labor, he enters his senior year with new muscles that attract popular Bethany Millbury, whose father is Tyler's dad's boss. On probation for his graffiti stunt, Tyler struggles to balance his consuming crush with pressure that comes from schoolwork and his explosive father, and after Tyler is implicated in a drunken crime, his balancing act falls apart. The dialogue occasionally has the cliched feel of a teen movie ("Party's over." "We're just getting started. And I don't remember inviting you"). What works well here is the frank, on-target humor ("I was a zit on the butt of the student body"), the taut pacing, and the small moments, recounted in Tyler's first-person voice, that illuminate his emotional anguish. Writing for the first time from a male perspective, Anderson skillfully explores identity and power struggles that all young people will recognize. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Speak; Reprint edition (May 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142411841
• ISBN-13: 978-0142411841
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurie Halse Anderson is the New York Times-bestselling author who writes for kids of all ages. Known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity, her work has earned numerous American Library Association and state awards. Two of her books, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists. Chains also made the Carnegie Medal Shortlist in the United Kingdom.

Laurie was the proud recipient of the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award given by YALSA division of the American Library Association for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature...". She was also honored with the ALAN Award from the National Council of Teachers of English and the St. Katharine Drexel Award from the Catholic Librarian Association.

Mother of four and wife of one, Laurie lives in Northern New York, where she likes to watch the snow fall as she writes. She and her husband, Scot, plus dogs Kezzie and Thor, and assorted chickens and other critters enjoy country living and time in the woods. When not writing or hanging out with her family, you can find Laurie training for marathons or trying to coax tomatoes out of the rocky soil in her backyard. You can follow her adventures on Twitter, http://twitter.com/halseanderson, and on her blog, http://madwomanintheforest.com/blog/.

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#94 in Books > Teens

#94 in Books > Teens

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 72 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brutally Honest Insight Into the Teenage American Male Pysche. April 15, 2007

By tvtv3 TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

TWISTED is a novel from Laurie Halse Anderson (author of SPEAK) that examines the mindset of the typical American suburban teenage male. The story is told from the point of view of Tyler Miller. Tyler was just an average, overlooked high school student until the end of this junior year. He did well in his classes, but because he didn't play sports, come from a wealthy family, or have a great physique he was a just one of many nameless faces at George Washington High School. Tyler was tired of being a nobody and decided that he would do something to get the entire school to recognize him and at the end of his junior year committed the Foul Deed. The Foul Deed gained him high school infamy, but it also forced him to sell his car and earned him a summer of community service working with the schools maintenance and janitorial staff and six months of probation. He spent most of his summer tarring roofs and doing landscaping work. By the end of the summer he had ended his growth spurt topping out around six feet and his flabby frame was as solid as chiseled granite.

Tyler likes his new look and isn't the only one. The most popular girl in school, the queen bee, Bethany Milbury suddenly starts noticing Tyler. Tyler's sister, Hannah, who begins high school as a freshman also notices Tyler's new physique and uses it to her advantage on the first day of school. Tyler had liked Bethany since grade school. She is his dream girl. But there are some big obstacles. Besides the obvious, that Bethany and Tyler are from two completely different worlds, there's also the fact that Bethany's Dad is Tyler's Dad's boss and that Bethany's twin brother Chip is Tyler's worst enemy. Somehow Tyler is able to overcome these obstacles and the school year begins as the best of his high school career. But events at a rowdy party after a football game turn everything upside down and Tyler finds himself looking at a possible jail sentence for a crime he didn't commit. He thinks about committing suicide and he plans to run away. Everything in his life is all screwed up and the only thing he is sure about is how complicated and twisted life has become.

I know that Laurie Halse Anderson gained a huge amount of public and critical acclaim with her novel, SPEAK. I haven't read that book, yet, but knew from recommendations from friends who have read that book what an excellent writer she is. TWISTED just reinforced everything I had been told.

The story is a very honest and brutal examination at the inner struggles that a typical suburban teenage American male goes through. I work with teenagers on a regular basis and I was once an American teenage male myself (though I wasn't from the suburbs) so I can relate a great deal to the character of Tyler Miller. However, I also found the novel to be rather disturbing because in reading about Tyler and his struggles I see how far we (as people) have changed in the past ten to fifteen years and it frightens me.

We live in a culture and society that is constantly changing. Some people would argue that these changes are for the better. To an extent, I would agree. But only to an extent. Change can be good, but it isn't always good and change just for the sake of change is very seldom a good thing. Traditions and the status quo can sometimes become a barrier to creativity and originality, but they have their place in society and culture even though they are unfortunately systematically being erased little by little. In such a culture, boys no longer know how to become men. Physically, many boys appear to be men, but their emotions and mentality remain that of a boy. Advertising saturates us with messages that conflict with our innermost sense of self, yet appeals to the most primal urges within each of us and this causes old boys and young men to have a mental life full of twisted confusion and frustration.

Then there's the public education system itself. I'm a committed teacher, but I'm also a realist when it comes to educating secondary students. Anyone who doesn't want to acknowledge that our public education system is messed up is living in an imaginary world. In the United States we have attempted to do what no other country in history has ever done before by providing the same basic education to everyone regardless of ability. It's a noble ideal. Unfortunately the ideal will never be realized if the current system remains the way it is. Extremely talented and creative children are being left behind, their gifts and talents unacknowledged and unrecognized while someone who is able to fill in enough little circles properly in the right amount of time is lavished with praise. Then there's the whole issue with how public high schools in America have become little more than semi-restricted centers of social experimentation instead of the pantheons devoted to education, civic training, and morality that they are supposed to be.

TWISTED deals with all these issues and at times it can be quite bleak. Yet, the book is a book of hope. Tyler has to face his inner demons but they don't ultimately conquer him. Not only that, but he's not alone. Outside of his family he has his best friend, Yoda. At school his favorite teacher is his English teacher, Mr. Salvatore who is concerned for Tyler and his well being. These characters in addition to Tyler's mother, sister, and the high school janitorial crew help Tyler realize how unique and special that he is. He recognizes this, but doesn't fully understand it for quite sometime. Every teenager needs people like this in their lives and I weep for those who don't have anyone or think that they don't because I've seen first hand what happens to kids who don't.

TWISTED is prefaced by a short warning that declares "NOTE: THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR CHILDREN." I'm glad that warning is there because though TWISTED is marketed as a young adult novel, it's a novel not written for children and is aimed at adults. There is a lot of crude and foul language, there is a great deal of violence, and the book is filled with images of sexuality. I know that there are many teenagers will read this book and I hope that when they do they can take something positive away from it. However, I hope that more adults than teenagers will read it. However, TWISTED is so insightful and powerful that it's a book that any adult who works with teenage boys should require themselves to read.

35 of 41 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars twisted indeed July 28, 2007

By E. M. Bristol VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Tyler Miller, former nerd, returns for his senior year with a new buff bod, courtesy of the manual community service he was forced to perform for graffitting the school. To his surprise, school Queen Bee Bethany Milsbury starts paying attention to him. This causes conflict with his nemesis, Bethany's twin brother Chip, and is complicated by the fact that Bethany's dad is his father's boss. When he rejects her (drunken) advances at a party, things become complicated when anonymous nude camera photos of Bethany wind up on the Internet. Suddenly, the police are paying attention to the former school defacer and he faces hostility from the other students. Like Melinda in "Speak," he has a dysfunctional family and minimal support from peers and adults. As he begins to implode from the pressure, finding a way to clear his name and stand up to the bullies in his life looks more and more difficult.

Pros: The sympathetic characters (Hannah and Yoda) were appealing, but the bullies and Bethany, the school princess, were stereotypes. Other messages were basically what we've seen in teen movie after teen movie. Abusing your kid is bad because he will eventually snap. (Ferris Bueller's Day Off). Messing up in Little League scars child and dad for life. (Parenthood). Rich people are soulless, decadent zombies. (Virtually every movie ever made.) I wish the author had tried to turn the formula a little more inside out, the way the "Ordinary People" author did when she made the Bad Dad a Mom. I enjoyed the book until the end, but felt it painted an inaccurate portrait of what recovering from clinical depress is like. It's usually two steps forward and four steps back at a time for the average person. You don't just reach a turning point, gain the ability to stand up to anyone in your way, and then your tormentors start backing down in record numbers. Melinda's journey from victim to survivor in "Speak" was far more believable because it took place over an entire school year, not a semester like in "Twisted."

(This is where the review loses objectivity.)
Some reviewers have written about the great message this book sends. I disagree. Standing up to one's abusive parent is NOT the same as facing a school bully or even a school authority figure, like a principal, and to imply that it is does a disservice to people who are victims of child abuse and who have to co-exist at least until they come of age. Threatening one's father with a baseball bat probably won't have the same effect as it does in the book, i.e. Domineering Dad bursting into tears and apologizing for years of cruelty. If they were capable of feeling such remorse, they probably wouldn't be abusing you that badly in the first place. Right?. Taking Tyler's route might make you feel like more of a "man," but you're likely to wind up on the streets or in the hospital. At least outside of YA lit or Hollywood. Maybe this isn't what the author intended at all, but it's what I wound up taking away from the book.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Inisght and story September 28, 2007

By Steven R. McEvoy TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Laurie Halse Anderson is the author of 5 novels and 3 picture books. Her books have been nominated for numerous awards and many recommendations. Each of her books that I have read has been excellent and this one is no exception. The dust jacket states "Everybody told me to be a man ... Nobody told me how." Anderson captures the essence of the journey from a boy to a man.

Tyler Miller had been caught defacing school property, and now he is a hero to some, and an outcast to others, and is trying to find his way in the world. He has done community service all summer at the school, and worked for a landscaping company.

Now he must return to school and face the students and teachers who know what he did and the punishment he received for it. The school year begins badly; at a party he is knocked into a tray of glasses and cuts the feet of the Alpha female of the school, who happens to be the women of his dreams, Bethany Milbury.

Tyler is forced to take Bethany a cake as an apology for the accident. They become friends, and seem to be sort of dating. Then Bethany gets trashed at a party, and Tyler does the right thing. Yet Tyler broke his curfew from the court and that is just the beginning of some serious problems in his life. Unfortunately someone takes advantage of Bethany while she is drunk and most people think it is Tyler because of his reputation.

Most people think he did it. The cops keep coming by. He is attacked in school and out of school. He struggles with what to do, how to be a man. Can he learn how to be a man; can he take control of his life that seems completely out of control?

This book does an amazing job of capturing the angst of growing up, of finding your place in the world. It shows clearly the transition from boy to man, and then end of high school and moving on to the rest of life.

Anderson, as a woman, surprised me with he ability to write about becoming a man; her insight and clarity are awesome. This book should become a classic. Much like her earlier novel Speak I believe this book should be on the reading list for every high school or university Children's Literature course.
The book leaves you wanting more. The reader will want to know what happens next. Where is Tyler in a year, 3, 5 or 10? These questions will haunt you after you finish the book.

(First Published in Imprint 2007-09-28 as 'Short Titles With Varied Depths.')Speak