The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton

Penguin Group, 1967, 180 pp., $6.99
ISBN 0-14-038572

The Greasers are cool, smart, and tough with their tight leather jackets, greased hair, and cigarettes. They are the gang living on the West Side that doesn’t have much money, unlike their rival gang, the Socs. In The Outsiders, 14-year old Ponyboy Curtis is a part of this gang along with Dally, Johnny, and many other people. These gangs love to fight with each other and they do it a lot.  One night, Pony and Johnny go to a park where they encounter a group of Socs. They try to drown Ponyboy, and Johnny stops them by pulling out a switchblade and killing their leader, a boy named Bob. Right away, they run away to avoid the police and soon realize what the consequences are of getting caught. Everything changes for the gang and these two boys. They really have to stick together to stay away from jail. It really shows the true meaning of friends and family and how they are one of the most important things in your life.

Hinton created a great story with an unexpected plot and interesting characters. I would never have guessed that Johnny would have killed Bob; I thought this part was very surprising and when the story really got intense. Johnny also had to be my favorite character. He sacrificed his lives for people he cared a lot about, and I thought that was very heroic and brave of someone who is just 16 years old. It was a character I hadn’t really seen in a lot of books before and it was interesting to read about him.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book, since I usually really like things like the Twilight series, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, etc.  The Outsiders really didn’t appeal to me at first because of the gangs and all the violence and sadness especially with all the deaths. But, once I started to read this book, I loved it and liked how S. E. Hinton wrote this book at 15 years old.  The book was also very good at being able to draw you in. At some parts of the plot, so many things happen that you would never have guessed, and you just want to keep reading to see what happens. The part that really made me want to keep reading was when Johnny kills Bob, and when Johnny and Pony run away. The story changes so suddenly here and was very suspenseful.

I would recommend this book to teenage boys and even girls. It’s packed with action from the first page to the last that will intrigue readers and make them want to read more. The rivalry between the two gangs gets pretty intense, but at the end you understand more why they don’t really get along and learn to love them even for all the bad things they do. This definitely is a book that you will enjoy and maybe even read again, even if gangs and violence isn’t your favorite thing.

~ reviewed by Liz D.