Good book with one caveat

books:


	• Girl Walking Backwards Bett Williams St. Martin's Griffin, 1998 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

like it

im currently reading the book and i rele like it..the author is very intriguing in how she expresses the character's through sex and stuff...its just very interesting

Good book with one caveat

I really enjoyed this book and thought the character of Skye was very fleshed out and real. However, I was a little disappointed by the character of Jessica, a goth girl who self-mutilates. I thought Jessica was a fascinating character, but I took issue with the fact that all of her self-mutilation behavior was described very stereotypically, in a way that shows that the author has limited knowledge of the subject. Jessica cuts herself for attention, to stand out, and to look tough. Her self-mutilation also works as a tool to show that she is ultimately self-destructive. The issue I have with this is that most people who cut are not doing it for attention, are trying very hard NOT to be self-destructive, and don't want people to know about their self-mutilating behaviors. It's a topic that I am somewhat sensitive about, and I was a little peeved at the author's stereotypical characterization of the subject. Other than that, I really loved this book and would reccommend it to anyone, teens or adults, as a beautiful, difficult coming of age story.

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Okay...

After having read many novels from this genre, I just wasn't that impressed. There are many pros and cons to this story...

Pros: It did keep my attention, and I found the imagery between Jessica and Lorri as polar opposites interesting. It also exposes cutting as a real issue.

Cons: The blatant drug usage didn't really appeal to me. What I like about this genre is the actual realness of characters and I found the idea of this everyday usage being normal a bit out there. There wasn't very much development of the Skye/Lorri relationship and I thought the mother was just a bit too extreme.

So, in the end, it's nothing compared to the greats of this genre--Annie on my Mind, Empress of the World, etc., but it's not terrible either. Just not great for realists...

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Eh, ok.

I liked this book more towards the beginning. After a while, it became tedious and a bit sloppy. It was sort of depressing, but the problem is that it's depressive nature was not artistic, nor did it lead to any sort of greater understanding. It was just dim. I'd suggest that you just buy the book used or borrow it, if you're intent on reading it.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Skye wants what all teenagers want--to survive high school. She lives in Southern California, though, which is making that difficult. Her mother has fallen victim to the pseudo-New Age culture and insists on dragging her to consciousness-raising workshops and hypnotists. As if this weren't difficult enough, Skye falls in love with Jessica, a troubled gothic punk girl who cuts herself regularly with sharp objects. When she finds her boyfriend having sex with Jessica in a bathroom stall at a rave, her romantic illusions collapse and she has to face the fact that she's been running away from her mother's insanity. Right when things look their worst though, Skye is helped by Mol, a pagan who becomes her true friend, and Lorri, a graceful volelyball player with whom she finds real love. From them she learns how to feel authentic emotions in a culture of poseurs and New Age charlatans. In this anti-coming-of-age novel, where growing up is irrelevant, this is the best gift of all.

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