Erica Lorraine Scheidt

"Your so smart, Anna," she says. "You could do anything."

This is not a warm and fuzzy story. It's not a story that will comfort you, make you swoon over a boy or keep you snuggled up next to a fire.

But this story is powerful.

This is Anna's story. If you look beyond her deeds and her acts, and you look only at who she is - she was taught so young to be something to everyone else but never to be something to herself.

She spends her whole childhood trying to be the girl her mom needs, the girl show more the boys need, the girl Toy needs, Nancy needs, Joey needs, Josh needs. Never...herself.

And as a native Oregonian, I loved reading about our streets, our town and our landmarks. and I thought the writing style, although many found frustrating, I thought fit the story perfectly. It's how she is, short and abrupt.

I thought it had a lovely lyrical quality - with so few words, they said so much.

And this line, on page 128, literally caught my breath "How the abortion makes us family." show less

Told in lyrical prose, USES FOR BOYS is the story of a lost girl. A girl whose mother is constantly looking for a man to complete her, who has learned to live with the very little she has, and who has met all the wrong boys her whole life. From the one who touched her on the bus, to the others who take advantage of her, Anna can't seem to catch a break. Her best friend Toy -- whom she met shopping at a thrift store -- is her only rock. But even this relationship is toxic, as Toy goes on and show more on about her perfect boyfriends and her amazing life, while Anna fantasizes about the lives of the girls on her walls -- pages torn from magazines.

USES FOR BOYS by Erica Lorraine Scheidt is the sort of book that is best taken in sips, rather than gulps. It is as jarring as it is beautifully written. It's the sort of book that leaves you with just the right questions, and is certainly going to attract fans of Francesca Lia Block and Laurie Halse Anderson. show less

**Warning - This review will contain spoilers**

I really wanted to love this book. The cover and the blurb appealed to the romantic in me. Even after I started reading, I thought there was such an opportunity to develop a story of personal redemption, to show how a girl can make the choices that Anna does earlier in the story and still learn to value herself.

The first few chapters do an amazing job of setting up how the abandonment by her father and the emotional distance from her mother has show more effected her. She watches her mother go from man to man, constantly in search for someone who will 'love' her. It's an example Anna begins to follow. It's sad at first and while I didn't really like Anna, I could pity her. Then she's raped and I think okay, here's a turning point. Instead, she mopes around wondering why her rapist didn't kiss her?!?! Uh, what? I could have understood her feeling anger, hurt, fear, even misplaced guilt, but curiosity about why he didn't kiss her?? This is when I realized that Anna didn't mind having sex with different guys. She didn't mind being used by the guys. She was using them as much as they were using her. And that is where my sympathy for her ended. There's a lot of narrative about her being alone, and how her mom just doesn't care, but ultimately she makes the same choices as her mom, and then still whines about her.

The boys in the book are set up to be villains, but honestly, apart from the one who rapes her (although her thought process doesn't even suggest that she would have said no) they are simply doing what typical teenage boys do. If a girl has no respect for herself, then they're not going to respect her. Should they? Yes, but if you're willing to sit on school bus and jerk one of them off while his buddies and everyone else on the bus watches then that's on you. Especially when you keep doing it. I thought this would be the lesson Anna learns. That she has value and should expect to be valued by boys. But even at the end she is driven by the physical side.

Sam is set up as her savior, but he's not. He is simply a boy whose parents taught him to be respectful of everyone regardless of their actions. The blurb on the book suggests that he teaches Anna that she has a value beyond sex, but he doesn't (consider the fact that she cheats on him twice with a one night stand). Sam's a virgin, all the way up until Anna manages to pressure him into having sex. Then she gets him to lie to his parents about it. When they get caught by his mom, Anna suddenly feels embarrassed.

Then book is pretty much over. She never changes her actions. She never stops complaining about the way her mom is always on the hunt for a new man. She never tries to help her friend Toy deal with the problems she obviously has. She simply keeps going.

I've read a few reviews and many say there was no point to this book. That it ends before we see Anna come to any realizations. And while I agree that we don't see that, I wonder if that isn't the point. Could it be that the blurb is misleading? Maybe this is really a story about a girl who never has and never will place any value on herself beyond what she can give to boys. Maybe it is a hard look at how some people never change, no matter how many times they get hurt.

This is not a book for everyone and my recommendations would be limited to much older teens. The sex is graphic for YA and there is no lesson to learn from the mistakes she makes.In the end I just liked it and blame myself for judging a book by its cover. show less

Uses for Boys is the story of a young lady just trying to achieve that storybook life her mom has always chased. After step family after step family and a mother who seemed to forget she existed Anna finds that she can look for her story in boys. Going from one boy to another convincing herself that each boy is her story, she finds nothing but more and more loneliness. She never seems to fit in with anyone around her. All she wants to do is find herself and figure out her story.

This book is show more uniquely written in pose. It is a quick and uplifting read. Anna's character can embody so many teenage girls. She is always telling her story to herself in her head. She is always comparing herself and relationships to her best friend's romantic life with her boyfriends. She wants that happily ever after, but just cannot ever seem to get it right.

This is a story of a young girl making mistakes while trying to find her own place in life after a childhood of loneliness. It is heartwarming and devastating all at the same time. show less