1/50
The Outsiders
S.E Hinton
My pick for our January theme as I had somehow emerged from high
school without ever having read it. Plus, it was due time that I stop pretending
I know the “Stay gold, Ponyboy,” reference.
Hinton really sucker-punched me with this one. In the first five pages, I knew that by the
end of it, someone would die and that it would break my heart. For a
14-year-old (or, in Hinton’s case a 15-year-old), our protagonist had some
pretty profound revelations about the world and its people. This passage in
particular stuck with me:
“It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her
patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two
difference worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset.”
It was a quick read filled with tension and a sense of
innocence that managed to also feel world wise. I would have gladly stayed in
this world with these characters for many more pages. Though, I do wish I had
read this about a decade ago—14-year-old me would have loved it something
fierce. And, I could have probably knocked out a pretty decent literary
criticism paper on this one.
This is on my September Assignment: Books geared towards Middle/Junior High Schoolers. I am really excited to read it. It's one of my husband's favorite books.
ReplyDeleteWould you recommend it for someone who does not typically enjoy young adult literature?
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly more along the lines of a traditional 'bildungsroman' coming-of-age novel--moral and personal growth was definitely important. In many ways, it reminded me more of To Kill A Mockingbird than say, The Fault in Our Stars so I'm inclined to say yes. I'd love to hear your thoughts if and when you read it though!
DeleteOh my goodness, what a flood of nostagia reading this review. My dad gave it to me as a Thing He Loved From His Childhood - I distinctly remember begrudgingly starting it out of obligation and then not being able to put it down. And then when he told me that S.E. Hinton was a woman (and, like 17 or something at the time she wrote it), I was like WOAH TEENAGED GIRLS CAN BE SUPERSTAR ARTISTS and it cracked my little sixth grade world open.
ReplyDelete