Crazy House

Crazy House by James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet, 354 pages

“There were no charges. There was no trial. There will be no escape. Seventeen-year-old Becca Greenfield was snatched from her small hometown. She was thrown into a maximum-security prison and put on Death Row with other kids her age. Until her execution, Becca's told to fit in and shut her mouth... but Becca's never been very good at either. Her sister Cassie was always the perfect twin. Becca's only hope is that her twin sister will find her. That perfect little priss Cassie will stop following the rules and start breaking them, before it's too late. Because her jailers made a mistake that could get them both killed: They took the wrong twin.” This book was a better than average Patterson story.  His books have been pretty much formulaic and predictable.  While I was still able to guess art the outcome of this story it wasn’t as formulaic or as obvious as some.  The story was good and teens who liked The Hunger Games and books like it will like this, as will Patterson fans.

House of Evil

House of Evil: The Indiana Torture Slaying by John Dean, 231 pages

In July of 1965, Gertrude Baniszewski, a 37 year old mother of seven living in Indianapolis, agreed to care for 16 year old Sylvia Likens and her 15 year old sister Jenny in exchange for 20 dollars a week.  In October, police responding to an emergency call found Sylvia dead, emaciated, her body covered in bruises, burns, and open sores, the words "I'm a prostitute and proud of it!" carved into her stomach beneath a branded "3".

Horrific as it was, Sylvia's torture and death would blend into the background of child abuse if not for the identity of the perpetrators.  As it came out, not only did Gertrude abuse the girl, her children were also encouraged to join in, and their friends participated, too.  It became a neighborhood game to put out cigarettes on Sylvia's body or push her down the stairs.  Her three oldest children were arrested along with six neighbors, Gertrude was ultimately convicted of first degree murder, her eldest daughter of second degree murder, and three boys of manslaughter.

This book tells the story poorly, although how much of this is due to a failure on Dean's part and how much the result of conflicting stories and foggy details is unclear.   It seems as if, in a case with so many witnesses, a better account could have been constructed despite the obvious difficulties, but Dean seems to have relied almost exclusively on courtroom testimony - House of Evil was originally published soon after the trial and it is unclear how much it has been updated.  The children are portrayed more like preteens than the teenagers they were.  There is a natural reluctance to defame the victim, but Dean loses a great deal of credibility when he seemingly accepts the transparent lie that Sylvia found a set of gym clothes lying in the street - important because it ties in with claims by the tormentors that Sylvia had been caught stealing on other occasions.  Worst of all, the chronology is vague and confused, making it extremely difficult to chart the escalation of abuse and the manner in which the abusers fed off each other, which is the key narrative.  Instead, the story is a catalog of seemingly random horrible things that horrible people did to an almost entirely innocent girl.

Uglies

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, 425 pages

Tally has been anxiously awaiting her 16^th birthday when she can have the operation that will turn her from an ordinary ugly to a pretty.  Pretties have all of the fun and besides, everyone knows that evolution means that people are predisposed to look for certain types of symmetry and beauty in people so if everyone is the same, no one has to argue.  Until Tally meets Shay, another ugly who will turn 16 the same day as Tally.  But Shay isn’t sure that she wants to be pretty and she knows a place she can go to get away from the city and stay ugly for the rest of her life.  She wants Tally to come along but Tally can’t understand why anyone would want to be ugly.  After Shay leaves, something goes wrong with Tally’s operation and Tally is forced to make some difficult decisions about betraying Shay and whether or not being pretty is really what she wants.  I waited a long time to start on Westerfeld’s books because everyone raved about them and since I always have so much to read I wasn’t sure if I was ready to get caught up in his series, figuring I’d want to read all of his books once I got started.  However, I finally caved and have started reading the Uglies series.  I liked it but I’m not sure that it lived up to the hype for me.  I definitely want to read the rest of the series because it is a good, well written story but I expected to feel almost compelled to keep reading and I don’t.  However, I think that a lot of teens who like the dystopian novels will enjoy this story.