Girl Walking Backwards
by Bett Williams
Sometimes I forget how totally intense Young Adult fiction can be, subject matter-wise. I just finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, which is by all accounts a book for grown-ups, but it didn't have half the 'adult' themes that Girl Walking Backwards has. If I were to sum up the story of The Marriage Plot, I would say it was about one fairly average woman and two men who become steadily less suitable for her. I mean, it had a little sex and some mental illness, but it was basically tame. Girl Walking Backwards has drugs, alcohol, self-harming, masturbation, sexual abuse, divorce, satanism, sex and mental illness. I don't know how the kids can handle it.
I would totally recommend Girl Walking Backwards, though. It's about a girl living in Santa Barbara, CA, trying to cope with a mother who is basically in a self-help cult, an awol father, and falling in love with a damaged goth girl. The protagonist is very likeable, and if occasionally the prose wanders into teen melodrama territory it does at least feel authentic. Plus, as mentioned above, a tonn of exciting stuff happens.
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