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Review: Uses for boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt


Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know.

Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. 


My thoughts

This book isn't as good as I hoped it might be for several reasons.

To start on a positive note this book does what it wants it that it shocks and it is really quite sad. You really feel for the young girl at the centre of this book and see how the sheer neglect she has suffer at the hands of her mother has driven her into the life she has ended up living.

However for me this book is lacking. The story itself is very simply written and quite basic in the choice of writing of style which makes it read, if it weren't for the content, like a book for a much younger audience. I do feel that maybe the book is designed to shock with the sexual explicit content and it didn't feel to me like it had a whole lot of substance to it.

All in all not really the book for me.

Comments

I was so uncomfortable reading this content and had so much trouble with the decisions Anna made-it was not a good book for me at all.