Naked

by Stacey Trombley

[Leah]

This seemed like such an interesting read, but for some reason it just didn't speak to me like I expected it to. The plot was an interesting one - a girl who ran away to New York, and ended up becoming a prostitute ends up back at home, trying to live a normal life, but I just never felt invested in Anna. She spends a LOT of time talking about Luis, and while I can sort of understand her infatuation with him, and I can understand that she obviously didn't know that what he did was wrong, it just made me feel so icky. Surely after that final incident, her eyes should have been opened to him? But, no. So a lot of the early novel is Luis this, Luis that, until I just got sick of seeing his name.

Anna was a very, very defensive character. She has her reasons - many of them, but it makes her hard to like. It's hard to warm up to someone who's so suspicious of everyone, and it's even harder to understand her suspicions when we rarely heard of the goings on before she went back home. Now I'm not saying I wanted some hardened account of her life on the streets, but it would have made it more real to know what went on, instead of the bits and pieces teased to us.

Jackson was probably my favourite character, closely followed by Zara the dog, if only because I am a sucker for dogs. I loved Jackson's innocence, or perceived innocence and I loved that he was willing to be friends with Anna despite the rumours. Jen and Alex also scored massive points for not caring about Anna's past and wanting to just be her friend in the now. Those are some awesome people right there.

I expected a more emotional read, it wasn't as emotional as I expected, although there were moments. It was so hard to see how Anna's parents treated her, especially her dad. He was awful. Just awful, and I kinda liked that her mom was willing to stick up for her (maybe a little bit too late, but maybe better late than never).