Special : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: the hardships of being 13
Review: After reading a review in EW I picked up this book out of curiosity and was not disappointed. Special follows a group of English school girls who in between tests and the end of the school year are dropped off at a manor. Bella Bathurst quickly lays down the caste system of the girls. There's the three popular girls, Hen a sick Scottish girl, Jules desperate for love, and Caz, a girl who seems void of any kind of feelings or conscience. There are the wannabes, and then there are the outcasts; Izzy a sickly fat girl and Ally, who's role is summed up in the first chapter when she extends her hand for a man to shake and he walks by her, unaware of her existence.
A lot happens in the week that the girls are at the manor. The girls get drunk, fight, excercise, meet boys (some men) and are taken advantaged and take advantage. Bathurst has a way with description, noting people and surroundings down to the last detail without overburdening us. When the girls talk to each other it seems like something real 13 year olds would say to each other. The end is jarring, completly coming out of left field. It's comparisons to LORD OF THE FLIES is justified. I thought about this book for days after finishing it. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: What an ending.
Review: I picked up this book absolutely clueless to what I was about to read. I had read the back cover, and it seemed intriguing so I gave it a chance. I think that my use of the word intriguing is an understatement, becasue Special is so much more than that. Although I think that the characters are very mature for their age, I think that Bathurst captures the cruelty that teenage girls enflict upon one another. I highly reccommend this book for those girls 14 and up. The graphic descriptions might be a little too graphic for those who aren't mature enough to handle it. However, be prepared for an intense, and shocking ending. Also be prepared for a cliffhanger that leaves the actual events up to your imagination.

Rating:
Summary: More teen angst
Review: Let me begin by saying that this novel is more dissapointing than anything else. Dissapointing because it had the potential to be a really excellent story and blew it. The first half of the book, if not two-thirds is quite good. Very good in fact, that I couldn't wait to see what happened. In her rich prose, Bathurst uses interesting descriptions of things- such as comparing a woman's face after a car accident looking like a "purple moon". The dialog between the characters was also fresh and not cliched typical teen angst...that is, not until the last third of the book. The Ms. Naylor character is somewhat cliched and underdeveloped- she's just a typical school marm & some of the other tropes can be a little heavy handed- there's the "ugly girl" the "pretty girl", the "jealous girl" who is never good enough etc- the problem though, is that these characters begin to develop and then just become cliches. I'm tired of reading about girls with eating disorders, girls who cut themselves, blah blah blah. The ending has no real "resolution" (which I liked)like most books today do- there's no happy ending and the girl who feels nothing in the end still feels nothing. I liked the idea that things go unresolved, but I couldn't care less about any of these characters, much less am I supposed to feel something for the girl who feels nothing? This is supposed to be somewhat like "Lord of the Flies" which as you know, is nothing about teen angst- in fact it's the opposite because you FORGET that these are kids and begin to believe they are killers. In "Special" you are so constantly reminded of their immaturity and youth & that's why this novel doesn't hold the same power. The last line in the book is "she felt nothing at all" & that's exactly how I felt about these characters. Read this book for the first half & then it's a snoozer the rest of the way through.

Rating:
Summary: Not That Special
Review: The back of this book promises "a fierce, subversive, darkly probing exploration of female adolescence", and while it might be considered fierce, only the very naive reader is going to find it subversive or darkly probing. Instead, this story of a two week school trip by a group of 13-year-old English schoolgirls, is more of a catalogue of female teen issues, such as anorexia, cutting, drinking, date rape, divorced parents, absent parents, running away, anger, sexual identity confusion, and so on. The core protagonists of the book are all set up as types: Caz is the beautiful alpha female, Jules is her jealous and caustic sidekick, Hen is the Scottish outsider trying to join the A-list, Ali is the quiet wallflower , Izzy is the gross fat and annoying hypochondriac, Mel and Vicky hang out in the background, Ms. Naylor is the sadistic spinster school marm, and Jaws is the understanding younger teacher.

Unless one believes that girls heading into teenagerdom are sweet little angels, there's little new here: They are cruel to each other-some more than others. They are jealous of each other-some more than others. They are terrified of being cast out-some more than others. And so on. Although Bathurst does a decent job of bringing the characters to life, none ever really rises above the level of cliché. More problematically, they often display levels of introspection and sophistication beyond their years. I had to keep reminding myself that these girls were supposed to be thirteen and not sixteen or seventeen. Some have likened it to Lord of the Flies, which is a rather lazy analysis, since the only theme the two books share is the ability of children to be cruel to one another. But while Lord of the Flies was making a much larger point above the nature of man, Bathurst's book is about the banal horror of everyday life as a teenage girl with no strong role models or support systems. In short, nothing special.

Rating:
Summary: Not That Special
Review: The back of this book promises "a fierce, subversive, darkly probing exploration of female adolescence", and while it might be considered fierce, only the very naive reader is going to find it subversive or darkly probing. Instead, this story of a two week school trip by a group of 13-year-old English schoolgirls, is more of a catalogue of female teen issues, such as anorexia, cutting, drinking, date rape, divorced parents, absent parents, running away, anger, sexual identity confusion, and so on. The core protagonists of the book are all set up as types: Caz is the beautiful alpha female, Jules is her jealous and caustic sidekick, Hen is the Scottish outsider trying to join the A-list, Ali is the quiet wallflower , Izzy is the gross fat and annoying hypochondriac, Mel and Vicky hang out in the background, Ms. Naylor is the sadistic spinster school marm, and Jaws is the understanding younger teacher.

Unless one believes that girls heading into teenagerdom are sweet little angels, there's little new here: They are cruel to each other-some more than others. They are jealous of each other-some more than others. They are terrified of being cast out-some more than others. And so on. Although Bathurst does a decent job of bringing the characters to life, none ever really rises above the level of cliché. More problematically, they often display levels of introspection and sophistication beyond their years. I had to keep reminding myself that these girls were supposed to be thirteen and not sixteen or seventeen. Some have likened it to Lord of the Flies, which is a rather lazy analysis, since the only theme the two books share is the ability of children to be cruel to one another. But while Lord of the Flies was making a much larger point above the nature of man, Bathurst's book is about the banal horror of everyday life as a teenage girl with no strong role models or support systems. In short, nothing special.

Rating:
Summary: strange
Review: When I first got the book to read, I had no idea how strange it would be. After a few pages, I had fair warning, but I couldn't put it down. Their life at the manor house is depressing, and their attitudes toward each other are competetive and confusing. My life at 13 compared to theirs was tame. While I was reading, I could not believe they are only three years younger than me! It is unsettling, how wild they are.
The descriptions of their lives and of their confrontations are disturbingly realistic. A book both touching and frightening, it gives a new view to the term "teen angst," and a new eye to the outcast girls. The ending is one of complete suprise and horror, so prepare yourself. I give this book 4 stars.

Rating:
Summary: American Prose(3*):::Book Chat:::
Review: ~In the book, Special, by Bella Bathurst she expresses the reality of the life of teenage girls. She also focuses on the physical and emotional struggles that teenage girls go through in this day and age. A group of high school girls and a few of their teachers go off on a two-week overnight field trip to the countryside of England. Each day of the two weeks the stories about each girl are told. Their emotions, concerns, and thought processes are expressed each day. The girls are Izzy, Hen,~~ Jules, Mina, Caz and Mel. They all have different personalities on this trip and express them in very different ways. Throughout their two-week stay at the house, which was once an Insane Asylum, they learn the little problems about themselves and the big problems they have with one another.
Daily they are fighting and putting each other down but at the same time they are experiencing the peer pressure of being a teenager with drugs, alcohol and sex. A few of the girls already smoke and~~ find out that at a town nearby they have easy access to other types of drugs and such things. So they are easily tempted to sneak out of their house and go around the town to explore the different pressures and activities that are set before them. They are really just problematic girls who are very depressed and have nowhere to turn to, not even each other because they don~{!/~}t rely on each other. I think this book truly does express the typical teenage girls life and the author does a~~ very good job of describing the lifestyle. It was an interesting book to read.~

Rating:
Summary: American Prose(3*):::Book Chat:::
Review: ~In the book, Special, by Bella Bathurst she expresses the reality of the life of teenage girls. She also focuses on the physical and emotional struggles that teenage girls go through in this day and age. A group of high school girls and a few of their teachers go off on a two-week overnight field trip to the countryside of England. Each day of the two weeks the stories about each girl are told. Their emotions, concerns, and thought processes are expressed each day. The girls are Izzy, Hen,~~ Jules, Mina, Caz and Mel. They all have different personalities on this trip and express them in very different ways. Throughout their two-week stay at the house, which was once an Insane Asylum, they learn the little problems about themselves and the big problems they have with one another.
Daily they are fighting and putting each other down but at the same time they are experiencing the peer pressure of being a teenager with drugs, alcohol and sex. A few of the girls already smoke and~~ find out that at a town nearby they have easy access to other types of drugs and such things. So they are easily tempted to sneak out of their house and go around the town to explore the different pressures and activities that are set before them. They are really just problematic girls who are very depressed and have nowhere to turn to, not even each other because they don~{!/~}t rely on each other. I think this book truly does express the typical teenage girls life and the author does a~~ very good job of describing the lifestyle. It was an interesting book to read.~