Reviving Ophelia : Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

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Summary: :|
Review: I read this book for the first time when I was 14 (a sophomore in high school). Now I'm a junior in college and read it again for a gender studies course. We have to write and give an oral book review and I chose this book b/c I wondered if I'd feel the same way about it now than I did when I was 14 - yes. There's something so wrong about it, but it's hard to put my finger on. First of all, it's WAY to defeatist and fatalistic. She places too much emphesis on pop culture and not enough emphesis on smaller circles or cultures like family, school, church, etc. When I remember back to my teenage years, sure I read Teen and watched MTV, but I was influenced by the people I saw everyday, not some Versace model on cable TV. Also, I think her logic is quite faulty. She blames the problems of adolescence on culture, but I think the nature of adolescence is problems. It's all part of growing up. The problems we experience in adolescence may attach themselves to something in our culture, but culture does not cause a troubled adolescence. I don't think adolescence is any easier or harder now than it was in the 50s or 1850s and so on, it's just that things manifest themselves in different ways. Pipher is picking the worst of the worst and using them as her case studies while anyone who appears "normal" she just labels "lucky". As far as the actual writing technique, Pipher's got some work to do. Halfway through the book I was ready to puke the next time I read some sappy cliche or metaphor about being "The sappling in the hurricanes of youth" or "the boat who's lost sight of the North Star". Please. Overall, this book didn't answer any questions I had or give any new insight; it left me feeling angry and defensive because in her opinion teenage girls are just hollow drones without any soul.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT!
Review: This book is excellent for trying to understand the psychological perspectives of young women. Although somewhat dated, since it was written in the mid-1990s, it is still relevant to today's teenage women and their struggle into adulthood. The author places a great emphasis on society's contributions to the problems of young women, but brings to light many of the events in the life of young women that parents might not be aware of and that are not discussed by daughters. I think that the author offers great advice and hits the nail on the head in terms of girls' reactions to trauma in their lives and to the pressures associated with coming of age in America today. Parents are often ill-equipt to handle these challenges because their lives were so different as young people and their own parents modeled behavior and relationships in ways that are no longer valid today. Parents today have to learn new skills to assist their teenagers and suffer the wrath of confused young women trying to discover themselves. It is a great book and fabulous read!

Rating:
Summary: A look at issues that teenagers have to deal with
Review: This book does very well at getting to the inside of a teen's life, having to decide who they are, and what they stand for, when the media is throwing out so many confusing signals. Pipher does not come off as thinking that all girls have problems, she just discusses the girls who do. Her imagery that she manages to incoporate into the book keep the book from becoming dull. This book helped me to figure out a few years later why many of my friends were cutting themselves. At that time they didn't even know why they were hurting themselves, all they knew was that the pain went away when the saw the blood.