Number of Pages: 160
Grade: B+
Contains: Relationships, Drama, Coming-of-age, Romance.
Analysis of Book (1-10 on each aspect):
Characters: 10
Plot: 9
Writing: 8
Wow Factor: 9
Summary: This book was set in the Hippie-era of the 60’s when people were getting drafted for the Vietnam War. The narrator is Bryon Douglas, a 16 year old who’s smart and smart-aleck. He lives in a low-income white neighborhood. Here tensions between blacks and whites are still high during the Civil Rights Movement. Bryon’s best friend and basically brother is Mark. Bryon and Mark have always been like brothers after Bryon’s mom took Mark under her wing. Bryon and Mark hustle to get by and they do other illegal things. Mark is very sneaky and likes fighting, and Bryon had always liked it until…
He meets this girl named Cathy. She changes him completely. Cathy makes Bryon think a lot. Cathy doesn’t really like Mark and Mark doesn’t really like Cathy. Bryon starts to drift from Mark because he is starting to grow up as a result of his first love, Cathy. M&M is Cathy’s brother and Mark and Bryon’s friend. He gets in trouble with a powerful drug after running away and Mark has to do partly with some of that. Will Bryon and Mark stay brothers? Will Cathy and Bryon last?
Review: This novel is burning a hole inside of me. I am really the type of person who likes happy endings. Part of me is content on how it ended but part of me isn’t. It is real life, but why can’t real life have a happy ending? I loved the characters, the action, everything. I enjoyed this book so much more than The Outsiders. I felt that it was more organized and in total a better story to tell. I think I may have liked this one more because of the romance added to the brothership involved. The point of view it is given in, a low-income society is something very rarely found in YA books. Overall, this is a straight forward, easy read that will get you thinking.
Have you read this book? What did you think? Do you want to read this book?
What Vanessa Reads 
I haven’t read this book since I was younger than you are now and I didn’t even remember anything about the plot anymore but I remember that I loved it. Nice to know that this old story is still interesting for teens of a new generation.
alirambles- Exactly. I love how Hinton can do that. She can relate it to my life and still make it interesting.
Ali, I haven’t heard from you in a while! I’m going to head over to your blog one of these days.
Hey Vanessa, how did you know it was me? Anyway, did you check out my blog yet?
❤ Alicia lol
Oooh. I loved the Outsiders so this looks really good to me. I like an emotional story. 🙂
I liked this better than The Outsiders so I think you’ll really like it. 🙂