Crosses

Nancy leads a slightly lonely life, with alcoholic parents and scars covering her skin. Her life, she believed, was nothing out of the ordinary from the other 'fucked up' people in her school. She complains about her life, getting stuck with the 'goody' image and the dull people. Her ambition the first day of school was to lose them and get friends that are like her. That is what led her to Katie.

Nancy and Katie had everything alike, and the stories in the book, in chronological order yet casual narration, detail the adventures their cutting, drinking, drugs, and boyfriends got them into. They smoked weed, partied, had sex, drank, and got in a lot of trouble. This book is the bible for messed up people, good or bad. The mixed signals? In the end of the book, after all of the happiness and substance abuse, Katie dies, and Nancy reverts to 'goody' ways. She cleans up her act and decides that all these drugs are much too much, that they ruined her life; yet earlier in the book she declares a love for her life.

Through the Tylenol sniffing, the hash brownies, the vodka in shampoo bottles, the overdosing on aspirin, and the accidental wrist-slitting, Nancy gains a bitter yet loving view of her life, something that soothes the reader. At the final page, the final words of Stoehr, her sudden transformation comes off as an attempt to leave the world. It is an awkward cut that at first seems unreal, but slowly it dawns on the reader that Katie is really dead and Nancy is just a normal person. The fun ends, all of it ends. And definitely on a bad note.

Nonetheless, this book is very good. From the beginning to the end, the twisting tales and adventures of the so-called 'fucked up' are too interesting and too wonderful to leave. Though it may end on a bad and sad note, it is all well worth the ride.