Girl Walking Backwards

Skye is a girl who is sort of bisexual, but mainly lesbian. She and her boyfriend do very heavy petting but never have intercourse; he gets her to orgasm and then brings himself to orgasm.

Her parents are divorced, her father works in Hollywood, and her mother is into New Age-type workshops. She also can't really accept Skye being a lesbian.

Jessica is a girl that Skye sees and is attracted to. Jessica is a cutter of a fairly extreme nature.

Skye's mother has a mental breakdown and tries to kill herself, and also tells Skye to get out of the house. Permanently.

There are a couple of problems with the book.

First, it the way it ends. Or doesn't end. It's sort of a in-the-middle-of-something and then a “let's stop here” no matter where here is. The way it is ended makes no sense at all.

Second, and the major factor, are the characters. Normally in a story there are characters who are good, and ones that are bad. We support the one or ones that are good and root for them to solve whatever problem they have.

In this case, though, there are no sympathetic characters, including Skye. Virtually every one of the kids (they are in their senior year) are heavily into drinking and doing drugs. They have wild parties, and have sex at the drop of a hat. Many of them have mental problems. Even the adults, especially Skye's mother, are not sympathetic characters.

Basically, then, there is no one you care about in this story. There is no personal growth; Skye is not really any different or better off at the end of the story then at the beginning of the story. None of the characters grow in any way; in fact, her mother and Jessica both get worse.

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