Review: Torn by Stephanie Guerra

Publisher: Marshall Cavendish

Pages: 263

Received: Received from publisher through Netgalley

Release Date: April 1, 2012
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Goodreads Synopsis:

Stella Chavez is your classic good girl: straight As, clean-cut boyfriends, and soccer trophies. You’d never guess that Stella’s dad was a drug addict who walked out when she was a kid. Or that inside, Stella wishes for something more.

New girl Ruby Caroline seems like Stella’s polar opposite: cursing, smoking, and teetering in sky-high heels . But with Ruby, Stella gets a taste of another world—a world in which parents act like roommates, college men are way more interesting than high school boys, and there is nothing that shouldn’t be tried once.

It’s not long before Stella finds herself torn: between the best friend she’s ever had and the friends she’s known forever, between her family and her own independence, between who she was and who she wants to be.

But Ruby has a darker side, a side she doesn’t show anyone—not even Stella. As Stella watches her friend slowly unravel, she will have to search deep inside herself for the strength to be a true friend, even if it means committing the ultimate betrayal.

My Review:

This was a great contemporary novel that definitely feels like a real life situation. What I really enjoyed about this book was that it was focused on the relationship between the two girls rather than having a romance aspect to it.

Stephanie does a great job of writing the relationship between Stella and Ruby. She really focuses on the difference between the two girls. The differences is really what makes the friendship work in this story. They both need to rely on each other for different things. I definitely felt like Ruby was a character that helped Stella see things in a different light. I connected a lot with Stella and what she went through (minus the home issues). But I can definitely see a lot of teenagers connecting with this story in different ways.

I did wish there was a little more to the relationship between Stella and Mike. I felt like that part of the story fell flat for me. But I do understand it wasn't supposed to be a large part because the book is about the friendship between Stella and Ruby, but I thought there could be a little more with how long they supposedly dated, there were only very little glimpses.

I really wanted to learn more about Ruby and her background. This was something that was quickly mentioned and though I can understand there isn't much to talk about I was hoping for a little more feeling from Ruby. There was a lot more detail to Stella's life than Ruby's, and I found Ruby to be an interesting character that I wanted more of her life.

Despite these few problems, I did really enjoy this book and I flew through it. I really wanted to know what was going to happen next with these characters, and what kind of trouble would find them this time (because trust me, these two definitely get themselves into situations.)

I'm torn with how I feel about the ending, in a way I love that it closed a lot of things off that happened in the book, but it still left me with quite a few questions about the characters' future (especially Stella's). But all in all, I really enjoyed this book, a nice quick read, and definitely think this is a great book for teenagers today.