The Torn Skirt

Rating:
Summary: More powerful if you're still a teenager
Review: This is definitely a quick read and I'm still undecided about whether I liked it or not. It is a very harsh, ugly story...and I read it on an exceptionally GORGEOUS day so it was a definite downer. At times I could identify with the protagonist, but often she was feeling much more lost and disenfranchised, almost, with the world than I ever felt as a teenager. A very accurate, and less commonly told, side to the coming-of-age novel. This book did stay with me for several days afterwards, so that's a good sign. I do love several of the quotes on the back, especially "Impressive...Godfrey writes with cool clarity and control that belie the out-of-control nature of the story itself...Copies will be passed from hand to hand in hallways, underlined in ink, defaced with graffitti." from the Vancouver Sun. I do think this book is very powerful, and were I to have encountered it 12 years ago (when I was 12 and obsessed with similar stories, such as "Go Ask Alice") I think it would have had a bigger impact on my life.

Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read in a long time!
Review: This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. I have read many other teen drama stories and this is by far the best one. It has a realism and a feeling that this is like an actual story that has happened to a real girl. I loved the way in the story mad me feel like I was a witness and I was right there by Sara's side. But with the good also comes the bad the only thing I did not like about the book was the ending.

Rating:
Summary: highly original
Review: This was a very original and complicated story. The story was fast-moving and often funny and suspenseful, but also there were elements that made this book much more complex and lasting than most novels. I particularly found myself wondering about Sara Shaw's arrest and her refusal to tell the story they wanted; they being the police, the powers that be. Was this because she was more guilty than she said? Or was this because she felt a loyalty to the underworld? I also wondered if perhaps Justine was her imagined alter-ego; the killer inside. Oh yes, I also liked the final scene, a very moving and surprising end. I hope there will be a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: shocking? how?
Review: What amazes me is how books like these are said to be "shocking" and "offensive" simply for marketing purposes. And add to that fact that you'd have to be a total prude to seriously be offended by a 16 yr old who likes to use the F word a lot. Troubled teens. Sex. Drugs. They are confused, lost, could be pretty if they tried, want to improve but don't know how, blah, blah, blah. This isn't a bad book- it's just mediocre, right down to the binding holding it together. The story is very conventional, nothing we haven't seen before. The lead character is dull and self-centered & I'm supposed to feel sympathy or any feeling at all for her because she's troubled? Frankly, she's a bore. And her pals are bores. And the reason I would never want to talk to any of them is not for their "slummin'" but because they are all so downright boring and predictable. And on top of that, the lead character can't stop complaining how dumb and bored she is. Anyway- there needs to be a point. My feeling at the end of this book is a shrug of the shoulders "so what". There are some nice phrases and descriptions of things, but none of the observations are especially unique or interesting. This is at about the level of what I expected. Now I must sleep out of sheer boredom.

Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: When I read this it was like I understood where Sara was comming from, and where she was going. A great book to excape.