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Twisted Kindle Edition
High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background. 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 school, in his family, and in the world.
"Poignant and gripping." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Once again, Anderson's taut, confident writing will cause this story to linger long after the books is set down." —SLJ
A New York Times Bestseller
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
- Reading age12 - 18 years
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level7 - 12
- Lexile measureHL680L
- PublisherSpeak
- Publication dateMarch 20, 2007
- ISBN-13978-0670061013
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Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
...a chillingly accurate portrayal of the high-school social scene, in which morals, perceptions and conceptions of truth are continually...challenged. a"Publishers Weekly"
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I spent the last Friday of summer vacation spreading hot, sticky tar across the roof of George Washington High. My companions were Dopey, Toothless, and Joe, the brain surgeons in charge of building maintenance. At least they were getting paid. I was working forty feet above the ground, breathing in sulfur fumes from Satan’s vomitorium, for free.
Character building, my father said.
Mandatory community service, the judge said. Court-ordered restitution for the Foul Deed. He nailed me with the bill for the damage I had done, which meant I had to sell my car and bust my hump at a landscaping company all summer. Oh, and he gave me six months of meetings with a probation officer who thought I was a waste of human flesh.
Still, it was better than jail.
I pushed the mop back and forth, trying to coat the seams evenly. We didn’t want any rain getting into the building and destroying the classrooms. Didn’t want to hurt the school. No, sir, we sure didn’t.
Joe wandered over, looked at my work, and grunted.
“We done yet?” asked Dopey. “Thunderstorms rolling in soon. Heavy weather.”
I looked up. There were no clouds in the sky.
Joe nodded slowly, studying the roof. “Yeah, we’re done.” He turned off the motor on the tar kettle. “Last day for Tyler, here. Bet you’re glad to be quit of us, huh, kid?”
“Nah,” I lied. “You guys have been great.”
Dopey cackled. “If them sewer pipes back up again, we’ll get you out of class.”
There had been a few advantages to working with these guys. They taught me how to steal free soda out of the vending machines. I snagged a couple of keys when they weren’t looking. Best of all, the hard labor had turned me from Nerd Boy into Tyler the Amazing Hulk, with ripped muscles and enough testosterone to power a nuclear generator.
“Hey, get a load of this!” Toothless shouted.
We picked our way around the fresh tar patches and looked where he was pointing, four stories down. I stayed away from the edge; I wasn’t so good at heights. But then I saw them: angels with pony tails gathered in the parking lot.
The girls’ tennis team.
Wearing bikini tops and short shorts.
Wearing wet bikini tops and wet short shorts.
I inched closer. It was a car wash, with vehicles lined up all the way out to the road, mostly driven by guys. Barely clad girls were bending, stretching, soaping up, scrubbing, and squealing. They were squirting each other with hoses. And squealing. Did I mention that?
“Take me now, Lord,” Toothless muttered.
The marching band was practicing in the teachers’ lot. They fired up their version of “Louie, Louie.” Finely toned tennis-angel butts bounced back and forth to the beat. Then a goddess rose up from the hubcap of a white Ford Explorer.
Bethany Milbury.
The driver of the Explorer said something. Bethany smiled and blew at the soapsuds in her hands so bubbles floated through the air and landed on his nose. The driver melted into a puddle on the front seat. Bethany threw back her head and laughed. The sun flashed off her teeth.
Joe’s tongue dropped out of his mouth and sizzled on the hot roof. Dopey took off his glasses, rubbed them on a corner of his shirt, and put them back on. Toothless adjusted himself.
Bethany bounced along to the next car in line, a dark-green Avenger that was burning oil.
Bethany Milbury pushes me against the hood of my cherry-red, turbocharged Testarossa. “I love fast cars,” she whispers, soapy fingers in my hair.
“This is the fastest,” I say.
“I’ve been waiting so long for you, Tyler. . . .” Her head tilts, her lips open.
I am so ready for this.
She grabs my arm and snarls, “Be careful, dummy, you’ll break your neck.”
No, wait. I blinked. I was on a hot tar roof with three smelly grown men. Joe was gripping my arm, yanking me back from the edge.
“I said, be careful, dummy. That first step is a doozy.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I mean, thanks.”
A navy-blue 1995 Mercedes S500 sedan rolled into the parking lot. It came to complete stop. Left blinker flashing, it turned and parked in front of the building. A man in a black suit got out of the driver’s seat. Stood next to the car. Looked up at me and tapped the face of his watch once, twice, three times. I had inconvenienced him again.Dopey, Toothless, and Joe crawled out of sight. They had seen my father detonate before.
Product details
- ASIN : B000SEII5W
- Publisher : Speak (March 20, 2007)
- Publication date : March 20, 2007
- Language : English
- File size : 4354 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 299 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #513,436 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Laurie Halse Anderson is the New York Times-bestselling author who writes for kids of all ages. Known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity, her work has earned numerous American Library Association and state awards. Two of her books, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists. Chains also earned a spot on the Carnegie Medal Short List.
Laurie received the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award given by the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature."
Mother of four and wife of one, Laurie lives in Northern New York State, an hour south of the Canadian border, where she likes to watch the snow fall as she writes. Right now she's finishing up her next YA novel and researching Ashes, which will conclude the adventure of Isabel and Curzon that readers enjoyed in her historical novels Chains and Forge.
You'll find loads more information about Laurie and her books on her website: http://madwomanintheforest.com/. You can follow her adventures on Twitter, http://twitter.com/halseanderson, on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/lauriehalseanderson, and on her blog, http://madwomanintheforest.com/blog/.
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Through Tyler's eyes we watch how his world is affected by one mistake. How that mistake changes the way people around him see and treat him... some for the worse and others for the better. But also how, that mistake also changes Tyler's view of himself.
There are many heavy topics in this book with very real and serious situations, but it's not an all dark and deep read. Anderson does a fantastic job balancing the weighty and contemplative with the light and comical moments that are the reality of teen life. I laughed out loud just as much as my heart broke while reliving this young man's senior year.
Twisted is a beautifully crafted read that is impossible to put down. A brutally honest look at a broken family and a teen that is basically a good guy struggling to make the right choices and be a better man... Even when no one else believes he can be... Even when doing the right thing still lands him in life changing hot water. I absolutely love the quote on the back of the book and think it does an excellent job summing things up... "Everybody told him to be a man. Nobody told him how."
He's got the hots for a girl out of his league. She just happens to be the daughter of Tyler's father's boss and her brother has been bullying Tyler all through school. But due to all the strenuous labor Tyler has been forced to do, he's bulked up.
The girl becomes interested in Tyler and they go to a big party. She gets waisted and tries to seduce Tyler who decides to do the proper thing and not take advantage of her. She blows him off and disappears for a long time. Tyler drives her and her brother home because they are too drunk to walk.
Long story short, Tyler gets in trouble for taking pictures of her in various stages of dress.
Tyler has issues with his father as well, but I'll leave the rest for you guys to find out.
Tyler used to be a nameless nobody with a secret crush on the hottest girl in school. That is until he got into trouble that landed him probation and a community service stint working with the school's maintenance crew over summer. As the new school year starts, Tyler's ripped, six-feet tall and hot! And he's thinking he might have a chance with the girl of his dreams. But he has also become the infamous bad boy from last year who committed the "Foul Deed," which continues to plague him during senior year.
I loved the author's depiction of Tyler. She does an excellent job of writing from the teen boy perspective...he's moody and angry at times, funny and caring, hormonal and lusting after his secret crush, Bethany. An overall normal teenage boy! Even with a "twisted" dysfunctional family and a world gone awry from his one big mistake, he totally enthralled me.
"THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR CHILDREN" is stamped on the inside cover of the book. I had to laugh at that. TWISTED is for teenagers, their parents and anyone who wants a real look into the inner psyche and struggles of a teen boy growing into manhood. This is not just a book for boys. It's a book for girls who want to learn about a boy's mind and to see how boys struggle just as much as girls do as they grow into adulthood. Even when Tyler thinks his problems are insurmountable and he toys with the idea of suicide, there's so much hope in this story. So many people are there for Tyler from his best friend, his mother and sister, his English teacher to the janitorial crew he befriended over the summer. They all make him realize he has so much to offer to the world beyond high school.
With a dose of humor, TWISTED is an insightful and powerful page-turner. It's an excellent example of a young adult novel from a male point of view that should be read by boys, girls and adults alike. I highly recommend it and look forward to reading more of Ms. Anderson's work. I'm hooked.
Top reviews from other countries
A short and good read!