Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Maja

The Outsiders - book review

Have you ever heard of a book written by a seventeen year old author?

The example is S.E. Hinton who wrote The Outsiders. The book is about two big gangs: the Socs and the Greasers. They are different in many ways and have a lot of conflicts between each other. Those two rival groups have to make hard decisions in life. The Socs are the west side rich kids who treat the Greasers very badly only because they are poor and look different. The Greasers have long hair and are usually dirty.

The genre which best describes The Outsiders is realistic-fiction. The story is based on real life although the characters are fake. The book is fifty years old but the events described in it are still authentic.

Ponyboy tells the whole story. He reveals his feelings and personal experiences. The beginning of the book didn't really hook me in. After four chapters I seriously started to like the book because the flow of events was very unexpected.

The action takes place in a small city in about 1950. Ponyboy - the main character is a Greaser. His parents died in a car accident. That's why he lives only with his two older brothers Darry and Sodapop. Darry loves his youngest brother but doesn't show it. He gets into small fights with Ponyboy very often. Usually it's because he corrects him in everything. Sodapop loves his youngest brother a lot and, unlike Darry, isn't afraid to show it. They are really good buddies. Soda feels weird and sad when his brothers get in conflicts because he always has to play the role of a middleman. Sodapop doesn't want to stand on Ponyboy's or Darry's side because he thinks both are right.

Johnny and Dallas are their best friends. They are the Greasers, too. The most important Socs are: Bob and Cherry Valance. When Ponyboy meets her, he finds out that some of the Socs aren't that bad. Cherry is very pretty. She has red, curly hair and green eyes. After some time, she takes a decision to help the Greasers.

Things are rough all over. Ponyboy and Johnny escape to Jay Mountain because of a murder event. When they come back there is a big rumble between the two gangs. Ponyboy knows that even if the Greasers are going to win, it's not going to change anything. The Socs will still be the better guys and the Greasers will still be the poor and worse guys.
When something horrible happened to Johnny, Ponyboy got very upset. Suddenly his grades in school changed from A's to D's.

I highly recommend this book. The story kept me interested almost from the beginning to the very last page. There where so many unexpected events! It was easy to connect with the character, especially with Ponyboy because he was doing things an ordinary person would do. After a fight with Darry, he escaped. I would probably do the same thing if I was him.

I enjoyed reading the book. It was very realistic. Every character and scene is described meticulously. When Ponyboy portrayed some place you could see the vivid image in your head. The story is interesting and you can see the author's point of view.