Weird on the Outside

by Shelley Stoehr

Overview

When sixteen-year-old Tracey runs away she finds that making ends meet in New York City for a young girl with few real skills is nearly impossible. That s when Tracey becomes Amanda, a topless dancer. On her first day of work, another dancer gives Amanda this advice: Never mix this place with the real world, but already Tracey s and Amanda s worlds seem like one big blur...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780595269532
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/11/2003
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	5.48(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.56(d)
Age Range:	7 - 18 Years

Editorial Reviews

"Stoehr seems out to shock with this sordid sortie through the strip joints of New York City," said PW. Ages 14-up. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 10 Up-At 16, beautiful, brilliant Tracey looks and acts far older than her years. Having grown up in the care of her father (a wealthy, self-involved MIT professor), she has begun to despair of his ability to fulfill her emotional needs, but finds that her mother's valium-dependent lifestyle offers no solution to her problems. The teen then travels to New York City, tricking both her parents into believing she is living with the other. The need for money rapidly destroys her initial plan, giving way to life in a cheap hotel and a job as a topless dancer. What follows is a downward spiral into stripping, alcohol, and drugs. Grappling with ambivalent feelings about her new self-image, Tracey consciously constructs a dual personality that allows her to keep her real self alive on the inside while creating ``Amanda'' to do all the dirty work. What is most disturbing about this book is not its intimate depiction of one of the seamier sides of the human condition but its central thesis. The heroine maintains that being ``weird on the outside'' is of little consequence as long as the inside does not stray from the straight and narrow. Aside from its questionable message, the story also suffers from characters, including Tracey, who are too simplistic to be interesting and a plot that is too contrived to be believable. Those who responded to Stoehr's sensitive and moving insights in Crosses (Dell, 1993) are likely to find her easy-to-read style and genuine dialogue insufficient to carry this novel.-Margaret Cole, Oceanside Library, NY

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