Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine ScheidtMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
Synopsis
Anna is lonely, alone, and incredibly passive; she'll let boys do whatever they want to her. I would tell you more about the story, but there isn't really anything else to tell.
Review
You will not hear this from me often, but I hated this book. I wasn't offended, even thought the novel could be graphic at times, simply bored. I think that I understand what the author was trying to do with the story, and she did paint a fairly distinct picture or a very lonely and detached girl. Unfortunately, the story never really went anywhere. I kept waiting for some kind of redeeming feature, but it just never came. I never felt that Anna actually grew a backbone or became her own person, hell, I never felt like Anna became a person at all.
For a book that primarily focused on a girl that found her identity through boys, I was surprised that the male characters were even less developed than Anna. My biggest issue with this was the character Sam. I think that he was supposed to be a good guy and a redeeming character, but he just wasn't anything beyond a vehicle for Anna into his home.
While the writing was not terrible, the formatting of the chapters was irritating. Like the sparse, blank characters, the chapters were just odd; occasionally just fragments of a story or an isolated thought. Ugg.
My Recommendation
Honestly, the story made me thing of a mindless string of paper dolls humping each other. I wouldn't recommend this novel to anyone, especially the target audience of teenagers; I fear that they might possibly think that the behavior in the novel is OK and it is simply not. I give it a 1/5 - Not worth the effort.