2 out of 4 stars
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Confusion by Sandy Lardinois (S. O. Nelson) is a book designed to explore themes such as bullying, child abuse and rape through a narrative told by two alternating main characters: Paxton and Maya. As someone who experienced bullying in school, I knew I had to check this book out as soon as I read the blurb. Based on the blurb in question and the warning about sensitive topics at the very beginning, I was expecting a dark, gritty realistic story.
Unfortunately, what I got was very short chapters and shallow characters who kind of wander through the story with no real emotional involvement on the reader's part. After being assaulted in the locker room at school, Paxton not only has to deal with the aftermath, but also has to battle his demons and try to find the strength to testify against his attackers. There's another character – Dori – who suffers from sexual abuse by a family member, but this is handled in a very rushed way, as if the author felt like they had to get it in quickly before the end of the book.
For the most part, however, the characters are shallow stereotypes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing for the 'teach by story' method where deep characterization isn't so much of a necessity, but if we as the reader don't relate to the characters, we're not likely to care what happens to them. The heartless father is too heartless, although he does redeem himself toward the end. The sadistic jock bully is too sadistic.
The voices of the main characters are distinct but come across as far too young. I thought I was reading about kids who were eleven or twelve until Maya started talking about getting her driver's license "in time to drive to a concert next month".
The short chapters make the story feel very rushed. The scene where some of the boys gang up on the main character Paxton with a broom handle comes completely out of left field; we never have any indication that they've done anything on this level before. However, this single – admittedly terrible – assault is all it takes for Paxton to run the emotional gamut from thoughts of suicide, to buying a gun and shooting the bullies, to realizing that if push came to shove he would never have the guts to go through with it. Paxton's reaction and the depiction of the mental and emotional aftermath to such an event is done well, as is Maya's frustration at being unable to help him, and later Dori.
There are a lot of contrived coincidences such as other people just happening to reveal they've been through something similar at the crucial moment, but to a certain extent, I can overlook that as this book was written specifically to explore these issues. The dialog is equally stilted and contrived at these times but again, in this type of book that isn't too much of a problem. "It helps to share that hateful experience with someone who understands and doesn’t condemn me" doesn't strike me as a natural way for a teenage girl to speak, but the message is absolutely valid. The text also takes the opportunity to emphasize several times that rape and abuse are never the victim's fault, which is equally good.
However, the final message that abuse is a cycle and that abused people often go on to abuse others is shoehorned into a very short chapter, which doesn't work all that well.
I didn't notice any glaring errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation and the book is short and easy to read. The very end of the book has help lines and excellent advice for those people who might find themselves in similar situations, so I would rate this a solid 2 out of 4 stars.
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Confused
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There are parts where the book does a good job of showing what's going on (the 'bubble' theory in particular is very well done) so yes, I think it would be helpful to anyone working in this area.
