Review: Torn by Stephanie Guerra

Title:Torn

Author: Stephanie Guerra

Publication: May 15, 2012

Publisher:Marshall Cavendish

Genre: Contemporary

Audience: Young Adult, 15 and up

Rating: 3.5 out 5

Source: Publisher via Netgalley

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Summary
Stella Chavez is your classic good girl: straight As, clean-cut boyfriends, and soccer trophies . You’d never guess that Stella’s dad was a drug addict who walked out when she was a kid. Or that inside, Stella wishes for something more.

New girl Ruby Caroline seems like Stella’s polar opposite: cursing, smoking, and teetering in sky-high heels . But with Ruby, Stella gets a taste of another world—a world in which parents act like roommates, college men are way more interesting than high school boys, and there is nothing that shouldn’t be tried once.

It’s not long before Stella finds herself torn: between the best friend she’s ever had and the friends she’s known forever, between her family and her own independence, between who she was and who she wants to be. 

But Ruby has a darker side, a side she doesn’t show anyone—not even Stella. As Stella watches her friend slowly unravel, she will have to search deep inside herself for the strength to be a true friend, even if it means committing the ultimate betrayal.

Thoughts: Stella just lost her best friend and it seems she is looking for a new one and in walks the tornado Ruby, who is everything she is not. Ruby is of the world and Stella just exists in it. It seems that Ruby is a bad influence and Stella just goes along with it doing things she never thought she would;sneaking out late at night, drinking and dating college boys. She wants so much to be liked and therefore she treads the line with her current friends and others groups she just skirted the surface with, not really belonging to one group. Well needless to say Ruby is the great divide and Stella now has to choose where her loyalties lie...with those she considers to be her friends or this new adventure with Ruby. Well the decision may just be taken out of her hands as she becomes an outcast in school when word gets out that her bestie is dating a man twice her age. Struggling with the decision on how to save Ruby without losing her forever, Stella must learn to trust in herself and what is right. The plot was intricately woven to display the dynamics of all the relationships and how the interactions and outcomes shaped the people they would become. Overall, good read about loyalty and friendship.


The Characters:
Ruby: She is wild and misguided. She has too much freedom to being emotionally, mentally and physically destructive to herself. Her mother figure could careless what she does and she is more of a place setting in the book....basically just sits there and does nothing. And it seems that Ruby's choice in men stems from her daddy issues, and from her step-mother. 
Stella: Has a more quiet, introverted nature. Also has abandonment issues with a daddy that did drugs, and left but she also has a strong mother in her life. Though she has to be a mother to her brother and sister as well. So, not much of a chance to really be a child but she is not as out there as Ruby. I think that is why she is so drawn to her because she is straight forward and blunt and that's an honesty she hasn't experienced. She is used to people being false and Ruby is fresh, new and she flocks right to her. 
The Males: No hot and steamy here, they are not very good men. Self-absorbed, and dangerously sadistic(well the old pervert is). 


Cover: Love it, the angle of the image and graphics are great!