Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

She wished something would happen. Something good. To her. Looking at the bright, fuzzy picture in the magazine, she thought, something like that. Checking her wish for loopholes, she found one. Hoping it wasn't too late, she thought the word SOON.(from the inside front cover) (link to publisher's site)


Perkins' novel, Criss Cross,
(link to Amazon) has two main characters, Debbie and Hector, who live in the same town and are friends. They have other friends and family who are in this story, and throughout the story the two only actually come in contact a few times. The book is their story, separately. Sometimes it is told from Debbie's point of view, and sometime it is told from Hector's point of view.

The writing style is something different from what I've seen before. Every couple chapters Perkins breaks off into a different style of presenting the story. At first this was confusing and I didn't particularly like it, but it has grown on me. It makes sense in this story.

The end did not satisfy me. It was too indecisive, I feel like it didn't actually conclude. But again, Perkins makes it work for this story.

Everything that is mentioned in the book is there for a reason. It all comes together near the end, even the parts that before had seemed obscure and unnecessary make sense and have purpose.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Such a good book. It's one of the books that really made me set my determination to learn the guitar. The songs in that book are hilarious!

Nicole said...

It made me wish I knew how to play guitar, so that I could play the songs. I agree, they are ridiculous! Ridiculous, and fun.