Twisted is a young adult novel written by Laurie Anderson and revolves around a high school senior called Tyler. Once an average student who faded into the background, he now stands out and attracts the attention of everyone, and this sets off a string of events that no one would see coming.
Plot
Considering it’s a YA novel, there’s no surprise that it centres around a high school student and his struggles with his home life and his social life. Even though this is the case, I found that Laurie made the most out of this common setting by adding the character’s change from being an average student to becoming a mature and strong teen. This transformation made the plot a lot more interesting because the main character introduced so much accidental drama which made his life a little worse but a bit more juicy. It’s just packed full of drama, romance, and heartbreak, enough to induce emotions for the main character and really allow you to feel immersed into the story.
Plot Rating: 4 out of 4 Stars
Characters
Tyler Miller is in the spotlight within this story, and I have to say that he was a character I very much enjoyed reading. Tyler gains everyone’s attention because of his physique and his past actions that led him to become a ‘criminal’, but once he’s back at school and trying to be a better person, things are thrown at him that cause him to consider his place with his family, friends and the world. Every emotion that he felt, I felt too. The shock, the sadness and the anger all felt real, but Tyler wasn’t a character that most readers can relate too, so the fact that I felt emotional for Tyler made me feel strongly for the novel.
As for other character’s within this novel, all I felt was a dislike towards them. Tyler’s crush and bully only caused problems for Tyler, but I also felt that they offered Tyler the chance to develop even further as a person.
The bully always managed to put Tyler is a situation where it seemed he was the culprit, but I was happy to see further along in the story that karma made its’ way to the bully. As for Tyler’s crush, I couldn’t have cared less about her. She is a big character in how Tyler develops, but I knew from the start that her behaviour and actions would lead to Tyler learning to not fall for queen bees ever again. The fact that I disliked her also made me feel positive about the book because there were great villains within the story, and you really rooted for the main character.
Character Rating: 4 out of 4 Stars
Grip
I found that the plot didn’t really get exciting until you were introduced to Tyler’s crush and bully because all the real drama starts from there. As you read on, the drama unfolds further and it kept me reading on and on, whereby even more drama was going to occur. From this, I learned that every few pages would have Tyler reflecting on what just happened, dealing with it, then being introduced to a new bout of juicy stuff! All of the stuff that was going on kept me hooked, and I loved every single moment of it (from like…page 40 on-wards).
Grip Rating: 2 out of 2 Stars
In all, Twisted is a brilliant Young Adult novel but can be enjoyed by anyone of any age. It has a great plot line, a main character that you can really feel for, and is very much different from any other teenage book I’ve ever read.
Overall Rating: 4 + 4 + 2 = 10 out of 10 Stars
For more Twisted information and reviews, please visit https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123106.Twisted
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