Miriam has always been an outsider. Having an eclectic artistic mother and hippy environmentalist, professor father, along with her "creative," artistic upbringing, always set Miriam apart from the others in her small town. It used to be bearable when Miriam had her best friend, her sister Deborah, for support. Everything changes for the worse when Deborah starts high school and begins caring about her appearance. Suddenly, Deborah is popular, has tons of boyfriends to choose from, and even she now considers Miriam a freak.
When the hottest guy in high school, Artie, temporarily moves in with Miriam's family, Miriam has a hard time hiding the fact that she has a huge crush on him. When the popular crowd at school finds out, they begin to tease and torture Miriam more than ever - making her life unbearable. Miriam realizes she cannot go to her mother or her sister - she needs to take matters into her own hands, despite the consequences.
Freak portrays the cruel actions and words of school bullies and the lasting impact that haunts their victims in a painfully accurate light. Not only is Miriam treated horribly by her peers, she is greatly misunderstood by her own family. Though the ending offers some satisfaction when Miriam stands up for herself, the author does not pretend that all of Miriam's problems have suddenly vanished. Though Miriam has learned to stand up herself, life will still be very difficult.
If you enjoy reading this book, try Drowning Anna by Sue Mayfield.
I enjoyed this book much. It has had a great impact on what its like to be treated without repsect all because of apperance, which really doesn't matter. Thank you for allowing me to share the wonderful feedback I have after reading this book.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really amazing book. It describes middle school life exactly the way it is. I am currently a 6th grader and my first year in middle school is not at all what I thought it would be. I am starting to realize that middle school is like a dark deep valley that you just can't get out of or some people but for others it boyfirneds,clothes,and gossip.
ReplyDeleteWow. weird but I liked it :D
ReplyDeleteThis book was so good. This was the first time I was so attached to a book. Most books i am not that interested in but this book was amazing from head to toe. It relate to life so much, but with a different story line and characters! One thing that I really like about this book is that you can actually picture the scenes in your head and the descriptions of the characters.- - - - -ii loVee iT sO MuCh <3
ReplyDeletehaha i got to read it in L.A i hate reading
ReplyDeleteIt was an ok book and i had to read it in ela 2
ReplyDeleteMY 8TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER WROTE THIS BOOK! She was soo cool, but we never read it in clas :( I wish we did though...I think it's so cool that you guys read it in your school!
ReplyDeletethe first time i read this book i was okay with it but as i went on reading i was astonished of how great this book really is hopefully you will love this book as much as i did :)
ReplyDeleteOmg i love this book. It's my favorite nd i hate reading a lot but this book was amazing. Marcella Pixley is great. Love u, keep writing. And I'm still shocked at what happened in the book.
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