New from Walker/Canongate: This is an acutely observed story of adolescence, featuring one of the most likeable but challenging young adults in contemporary fiction. Lou Connor, a gifted, unhappy sixteen-year-old, is desperate to escape her life of poverty in Sydney. When she is offered an exchange student placement at a school in America it seems as if her dreams will be fulfilled. Her host family has a beautiful house and couldn't be more welcoming...until she starts to be suffocated by the repressed atmosphere of their suburban mansion and things start to go badly wrong. In Lou Connor, Hyland creates a larger-than-life protagonist who mesmerises the reader with her vivacity and vulnerability, from hopeful beginning to unexpected, haunting end. New from Walker/Canongate: bringing some of the best fiction to the young adult and crossover markets in specifically targeted editions.
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From Booklist
Sixteen-year-old Australian exchange student Louise (Lou) is ecstatic that she has left behind her rough family, who mock her for using big words, and their tiny flat choked with cigarette smoke. Placed in a wealthy Chicago suburb, in a pristine McMansion with the Harding family, Lou is stunned by the glossy perfection: "There are so many healthy, good-looking teenagers that a few crooked teeth, or short, fat fingers, suddenly take on the proportions of deformities." The Hardings are earnest and warm, but Lou's high-strung insecurity and wary independence begin to widen the cracks in her host family's strained domesticity, particularly when Lou turns increasingly to booze and drugs. Hyland's debut loses momentum as it drifts to its open ending. But Lou's furious, first-person voice is filled with piercing observations that beautifully balance Lou's teenage detachment and aching, intelligence and self-absorption, yearning and recklessness. And like Holden Caulfield, with whom she invites inevitable comparison, Lou is unmerciful toward those satisfied with easy answers: "What kind of a moron thinks there's a rational explanation for human behavior?" Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
"Expect to be blow away." (Guardian) "The best book I read this year... Brilliantly written." (Scotland on Sunday) "Tells of teen anguish in a world that treats such anguish as a crime. Unlike Mean Girls, Hyland's novel doesn't borrow from romantic comedy to dab out the ugliness of adolescence." (Time Out New York) "[Hyland] brings the long-forgotten teenage sensation of drowning in life's uncomprehended complexities horribly alive." (The Times)"
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The author had a good, lively writing style which was easy to read and kept me interested - but there was no plot to this book. I got tired of the protagonist's endless whining, and all the tearful hugs and confessions and talk in the host family seemed way of touch with reality. The ending was too open-ended, and did not fit the book. The author does have a good style, so I'll probably try her next book to see if it improves on this one.
By "sam333"
Format:Paperback
Lou, the central charater and narrator of the book has a slightly askew view of the world - as if she were new to it. And despite her desperate longing for acceptance and escape from her crappy background, cannot help but find fault with those around her. Although this turns out to be a somewhat destructive trait, most of the time you can't help but agree with her. The book ultimately charts Lou's all-too human trait of f**cking up, of knowing what you should be doing but not quite being able to do it, of knowing what is right but failing to live up to your ideals.
I read in an otherwise positive review somewhere (can't remember where)that Lou's intelligence and the profoundity of her observations were unrealisitic for a sixteen year old - this makes me wonder what these people were doing when they were teenagers. I don't know about anyone else, but when I was a teenager I was always thinking about the wold, puzzling out life, etc. That and getting drunk. With so much time on your hands (no job, family, etc) what else is there to do?
I highly recommend this - especially to those who liked Catcher in the Rye or The Bell Jar.
By Dave Hodson
Format:Paperback
Alright... normally I find the 'coming-of-age' genre of novels to be very fun reads. This one, on the other hand, was not what I was expecting. Perhaps it is my fault for basing a book on it's cover, but I was looking for something darker, bolder, more imaginative. While the author surely means well, and I will probably purchase her future releases as her style is sure to grow, I still found it forced in places and the plot-line lacking. I won't give anything away by whining about it, but I will say sometimes things just happen to "pop up" out of nowhere, or other things seem less developed than they should. The foreshadowing leaves no doubts to what will happen. The other major gripe I have is the ending. It is just left so wide open, without any real form of closure (in my opinion). I'm sure others will disagree with my review, but so be it. Given that I could finish it, and the cover photo is soo damn sexy, I'll give it 3 stars. Good for a day at the beach, but not much more.
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