Review: Uses For Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Title: Uses For Boys

Author: Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Publication Date: 1.15.2013

Pages: 240

Genre: Contemporary

Series: No

Source: Finished copy from publisher

Rating: A-

Summary (from Goodreads):

Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know.

Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical,  Uses for Boys  is a story of breaking down and growing up.

Review:

I had to pause a few days before writing this review because initially I finished this book and felt really let down, but I think it’s because I didn’t gear myself up for what kind of story this was. I expected a fluffy contemporary novel with a girl who falls for a boy after a string of sufficiently awkward, teenage relationships.

This is not that book.

Uses for Boys is, in fact, a dark, at times depressing story of a girl who finds her self-worth through boys and the things she does to these boys and lets them do to her. Yes, I’m talking about sex. It’s one subject Erica Lorraine Scheidt doesn’t shy away from.

Anna is a sad little girl. She’s been emotionally (and somewhat physically) abandoned by the adults in her life for years. This sets her on a spiral course for trying to find people who value her and care for her. This girl craves love, but doesn’t know how to go about getting it.

I commend Scheidt for taking on this particular issue because, like it or not, this is happening more and more anymore. Girls (and boys) are freely giving away sex and other things/acts for a modicum of attention and something that looks like love on a cloudy day. I’m not trying to stand on a soapbox and preach, but there’s a real problem when statistics say 65% of kids have sexual experience by the time they get out of middle school. Now, I love romance as much as the next girl, and I’m someone who understands that sex in young adult literature is reflective of the fact that teens nowadays are sexually active.

But rarely is the romance all flowers and eternal love like a lot of the fiction we read. It’s more times than not what happens to Anna in this book. It’s broken children who are looking for love in the wrong places.

Scheidt has a fragmented, haunting style of writing that is eerily reminiscent of Frances Block and the Weetzie Bat series. It’s captivating and draws you in even as your insides twist for what Anna is thinking and doing. You can help but ache for Anna and applaud Scheidt.

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