Revolting Youth

CD Payne

"Sometimes I pick my book by the way the cover is, the same why some people buy a bottle of wine off the shelf by the label. So I just — I liked the cover originally; and then I didn't realize that there were more in the series until I was over at a friend's house, and she's like, "Oh, you should read this!"

So I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it just because I read it when I was 17, and I could relate to it then; but now being 30, am I gonna be able to relate to it the same way? But I totally did because they don't speak like normal 14 year-olds in that book.

The story is basically the — it's following the life of a character called Nick Twisp, and in this book he's already — he's basically on the run from the FBI at 14. His family life is shot, and he's still at his school up in Ukiah, but he has to become a woman. So he dresses in drag, and he leads the same life; and there's only one or two people — his friend, I think, and his girlfriend — who know that he is really who he is. Everybody else thinks he's this high school girl.

What I liked best about it is the way that they talk, the way that it's written, just because you can relate to it as a 30 year-old. They would speak the way I speak now; the vocabulary that they use, it just wasn't believable at first just 'cause you're sitting there going, "Would a 14 year-old really talk like this?" Like I almost don't talk like that, so it's just the use — the words that they used, and it seemed like they had already been in and out of college and gotten their Masters degrees already. So at first, I didn't like that part of it, but then it just — it kind of grew on me after a while.

I didn't really like the sexual like undertones. I'm not really sure if 14 year-olds should be running around like having sex. I don't think it's something that you can stop, but it's just very out in the open in this book. If I was a parent and had like a 14 year-old, I'm not sure I'd recommend this book to them. I would give this book four stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC