Release Date: March 20, 2007
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 250
Genre: Young Adult
Source: Purchased by me
Summary (From Goodreads):
High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background—average student, average looks, average dysfunctional family. But since he got busted for doing graffiti on the school, and spent the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, he stands out like you wouldn’t believe. His new physique attracts the attention of queen bee Bethany
Milbury, who just so happens to be his father’s boss’s daughter, the sister of his biggest enemy—and Tyler’s secret crush. And that sets off a string of events and changes that have Tyler questioning his place in the school, in his family, and in the world.
My Personal thoughts
Going into this book, I had high expectations. I had previously read Anderson’s critically acclaimed novel Speak and loved the book. Plus the reviews for this book indicated that it was a must read. I was looking forward to reading another heartbreaking story that would resonate with me long after I read the last page like Speak did. Sorry to say that personally for me, this did not happen with the novel Twisted.
Determined to make a name for himself, Tyler Miller decides to deface his high school but ends up getting caught. Forced to do mandatory community service and pay for the damages, Tyler has to work at his local high school and a landscaping company over the summer as his punishment. The trade off to doing all that manual labor was the muscles he built up. He went from being this scrawny boy to a beefed up guy who ends up catching the eye of the prettiest girl in school Bethany Milbury. Getting close to Bethany comes with many problems. She is the daughter of his father’s boss and the sister of his sworn enemy at school, Chip Milbury. Chip and his friends’ do everything in their power to make Tyler’s life miserable but Tyler doesn’t back down and is always ready for a fight. On top of fighting with the kids at school, Tyler also fights with his dad on a daily basis. Despite all his problems the one positive thing he looks forward to is his interactions with Bethany that is until the events that took place the night they attended a party. From that night on, things spiral out of control that pushes Tyler to the edge of no return.
While the premise of this story was intriguing, to me it took too long for the story to take off. I really didn’t get into the story until the end when the party happened. The first half of the book Tyler is either daydreaming about Bethany or fighting with Chip or his dad. I kept trying to figure out where Anderson was going with this story. The constant fighting with his father and the images that Tyler conjures up of harming his father had me thinking about why he hated him so much. Tyler and his sister Hannah always seemed afraid of their father, that I wondered if he was abusive. The mother in this story was not a strong character initially as she seemed to play the role of the dutiful wife but when things got hard she sought solace in the nearest bottle of gin. It wasn’t until the end that you see her show some signs of fight in her.
Even though I felt like this book dragged on, I had to finish it to see what was going to happen. I knew there had to be some life altering event that would change Tyler’s life. To me it just took too long to get to that point and the events leading up to it were not all that interesting. While this should have been a fast paced read with Anderson’s short chapters, it took me over a week to get through it. Although I did not enjoy this book, I will not let it deter me from reading Anderson’s other books. I do believe she is a brilliant writer as I fell in love with her writing after reading Speak. I will just chalk this up to an okay read for me.
I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.
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