Scan barcode
A review by thelizabeth
Towelhead by Alicia Erian
4.0
A reread. I neared the end on the ride home today and finished it on the couch and sniffled. Also, yesterday in the laundromat.
I read this when it was published in 2005 because I read an interview with Alicia Erian that I liked the sound of. She talked briskly about writing. I was interested in rereading because of Alan Ball's film adaptation being released.
My favorite thing about the book is the strength of the tension in the entire narration. You are basically as stressed out as Jasira is, being 13 and sorting through the fuzzy line between sensitive feelings and actual offenses, feeling watched and being watched, being petrified of embarrassment and disapproval then getting embarrassed and disrespected, trying bold things and lying. It feels exactly like being a young teenager in a freaky environment feels, with a story at extremes.
My second favorite thing about the book is how it manages to produce a lot of explicit shock without pissing me off like kids in first-year fiction classes showing off their deep twistedness. This can't be easy to pull off, or so many people wouldn't write like jerks all the time.
Basically the book goes like this: everything is really awful, then suddenly everything is nice, and you'll cry maybe.
Three years ago when I was reading it, my sister who was 15 then visited and read the whole book in one day. This week when I was reading it, she visited from college and read the whole book in one day.
I read this when it was published in 2005 because I read an interview with Alicia Erian that I liked the sound of. She talked briskly about writing. I was interested in rereading because of Alan Ball's film adaptation being released.
My favorite thing about the book is the strength of the tension in the entire narration. You are basically as stressed out as Jasira is, being 13 and sorting through the fuzzy line between sensitive feelings and actual offenses, feeling watched and being watched, being petrified of embarrassment and disapproval then getting embarrassed and disrespected, trying bold things and lying. It feels exactly like being a young teenager in a freaky environment feels, with a story at extremes.
My second favorite thing about the book is how it manages to produce a lot of explicit shock without pissing me off like kids in first-year fiction classes showing off their deep twistedness. This can't be easy to pull off, or so many people wouldn't write like jerks all the time.
Basically the book goes like this: everything is really awful, then suddenly everything is nice, and you'll cry maybe.
Three years ago when I was reading it, my sister who was 15 then visited and read the whole book in one day. This week when I was reading it, she visited from college and read the whole book in one day.