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130th out of 242 books
—
165 voters
Caring Is Creepy
by
David Zimmerman (Goodreads Author)
Fifteen-year-old Lynn Marie Sugrue is doing her best to make it through a difficult summer. Her mother works long hours as a nurse, and Lynn suspects that her mother’s pill-popping boyfriend has enlisted her in his petty criminal enterprises. Lynn finds refuge in online flirtations, eventually meeting up with a troubled young soldier, Logan Loy, and inviting him home. When...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
April 3rd 2012
by Soho Press
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What the...? Even after reading the reviews, this book took me on a trip that I was not expecting. , I had no idea where this book was going to go, and it didn't go anywhere good. Every character was a conflicted, broken character. At the start of the story I thought the main character Lynn was going to be the voice of reason for her best friend Dani. Unfortunately it turned out very differently. Lynn took an unusual and very unexpected turn for the worse and morphed into this crazed and creepy...more
So not what I expected...the author took the story and ran away with it-in the opposite direction than I would've guessed.
When Lynn and her friend Dani started chatting with people online, they decided to make a game out of it. One of the main rules of the game was that they wouldn't identify their true identities. Lynn wasn't really sure why but she did give her real name to a soldier named Logan who was in hid mid-twenties while she was just about to enter high school. After Lynn and Logan met...more
When Lynn and her friend Dani started chatting with people online, they decided to make a game out of it. One of the main rules of the game was that they wouldn't identify their true identities. Lynn wasn't really sure why but she did give her real name to a soldier named Logan who was in hid mid-twenties while she was just about to enter high school. After Lynn and Logan met...more
The award-winning books this year are just not that great. I read this book as part of YALSA's Hub Challenge, and I'm having difficulty understanding why it won an award.
Here's the storyline: Lynn lives in the middle of nowheresville, Georgia. She's bored, so she and a friend go online and create fake identities, then they talk to people (usually guys). While doing this, they find an army boy who's stationed nearby and Lynn tells him her real name and ends up meeting him. Meanwhile, her mom's 6t...more
Here's the storyline: Lynn lives in the middle of nowheresville, Georgia. She's bored, so she and a friend go online and create fake identities, then they talk to people (usually guys). While doing this, they find an army boy who's stationed nearby and Lynn tells him her real name and ends up meeting him. Meanwhile, her mom's 6t...more
This was an interesting little psychological suspense story. It begins with some teenage girls getting into some ill-advised hijinks – emailing and playing little mind games with older men they meet online. The lure of the whole thing is to pretend to be someone you are not, except that Lynn (our main character) gives one young (older) man her real information. He’s 24, and a soldier, and the interaction with her pushes him in some way past a line; he goes AWOL from his post and begins hiding ou...more
I really enjoyed the first half of the book. 15-year-old Lynn and her friend Dani create online profiles in chat rooms just to mess with people. But then Lynn falls for a 25-year-old soldier and agrees to meet him for a picnic. But just when you think this is a case of an online predator, the tables are turned and the story turns into something reminscent of Stephen King's Misery. Very cool and very creepy!
But then the book just gets more and more implausible and there's the whole other aspect...more
But then the book just gets more and more implausible and there's the whole other aspect...more
This review is based on a copy of the book that I got free from the Publisher through the Goodreads First Reads program.
I found the pace of this book very consistant in that from beginning to end the story flowed.
This is definately a mid teen or young adult oriented book as all the subersive stuff you do at that age like smoke, drink, swear, fool around and try to get away with all sorts of stuff occur in the book.
The story is about a 15 year old named Lynn who just seems to attract trouble. The...more
Lynn is a pretty typical teenager with a complicated family life, friend issues, and a curiosity for mischief. Her seemingly normal life gets turned completely upside down when her mother's current boyfriend finds himself in some serious trouble, and her online fantasy boyfriend moves into the hidden storage room behind her closet.
While this book started out as a decent YA novel with some foul language and poor grammar, it takes a serious turn for the strange and confusing. As someone who typica...more
While this book started out as a decent YA novel with some foul language and poor grammar, it takes a serious turn for the strange and confusing. As someone who typica...more
I was tossing and turning trying to finish this book, It was so real and honestly scary that I felt it got into my brain! Really that is pry a sign of a very good author. But all I could feel reading this book was sadness. I started out with sadness for the relationship Lynn had with her mother, then the add in of the druggy boyfriend of her mothers. The uncertainty of her mothers role in the current issues! When Lynn met Logan I felt like I'd soon be reading a fairy tale ending. How far from th...more
One of the strangest, creepiest books I've ever read...
Caring is Creepy is spine-tingling, horrifying, and truly bizarre.
The story is that Lynn meets some soldier online (I think) and, when he runs away from the army, she decides to keep him trapped in her room. She decides that she will control him because she can't control anything else in her life. And so begins this creepy tale...
Lynn was truly off her rocker. She is INSANE. It was the creepiest thing ever. The way she manipulated Logan to k...more
Caring is Creepy is spine-tingling, horrifying, and truly bizarre.
The story is that Lynn meets some soldier online (I think) and, when he runs away from the army, she decides to keep him trapped in her room. She decides that she will control him because she can't control anything else in her life. And so begins this creepy tale...
Lynn was truly off her rocker. She is INSANE. It was the creepiest thing ever. The way she manipulated Logan to k...more
I think this was an interesting book. There are some really intriguing and exciting parts...it is a worthwhile read.
I would have liked a little more insight into the narrators reasons for what she did. I found the two sides of her personality - the public and the private -- to be too far from one another, and i couldn't understand her reasons for what she did with Logan.
I think I would describe it more as a Young Adult novel...so I would caution readers to go into the book with that in mind. The...more
I would have liked a little more insight into the narrators reasons for what she did. I found the two sides of her personality - the public and the private -- to be too far from one another, and i couldn't understand her reasons for what she did with Logan.
I think I would describe it more as a Young Adult novel...so I would caution readers to go into the book with that in mind. The...more
I really wanted to like this book- 2013 Alex award winner...not for me. Working with kids I've never seen such unrealistic character pieces in the main character. I know kids make bad decisions, but the main characters don't act the way described I've seen even the worst kids behave. Also- what 25 year old AWAL Iraq veteran comes back to be a "imprisoned" in a HS girl's closet that he met on the internet? I can't imagine a soldier so naive. Add to this weird relationships...I guess I just didn't...more
Its been a while since I read a book that has the perfect title. Caring Is Creepy isn't just a reference to the popular Shins song, it's the plot encompassed in three words. Caring is creepy in this book, very creepy, extraordinarily creepy. This story goes to some weird and dark places. I'm not sure how sold I am on the ending, a little abrupt, unresolved, but on the whole I thought it was very well written, original story, engaging (if creepy) characters and southern. I have a weakness for sto...more
Its been a while since I read a book that has the perfect title. Caring Is Creepy isn't just a reference to the popular Shins song, it's the plot encompassed in three words. Caring is creepy in this book, very creepy, extraordinarily creepy. This story goes to some weird and dark places. I'm not sure how sold I am on the ending, a little abrupt, unresolved, but on the whole I thought it was very well written, original story, engaging (if creepy) characters and southern. I have a weakness for sto...more
A raw, unsettling story about a teenage girl who manages to make some really bad choices, starting with sharing her name on an online site. I know what you're thinking, though, and that's NOT the direction the story takes. Our main character is brutally honest with us, even if she starts to lie to everyone else. Add in her mom's ex-boyfriend, with a drug deal gone wrong, and you get plenty of action. Well written and fast-paced, if rather disturbing in parts.
On an aside, I really wonder how this...more
On an aside, I really wonder how this...more
2013 Alex Award Winner!
This is book is creepy on so many levels. It's not a joy to read--you'll be glad when it's over!
Lynn and Dani are two teen girls with too much time on their hands. They are poster children for child molesters--spend unsupervised time online, have access to webcams, drink underage, and are just surrounded by people who don't care too much about them. When Lynn meets a 25-year-old man online, they two agree to meet, and, of course, get along. I kept waiting for him to molest...more
This is book is creepy on so many levels. It's not a joy to read--you'll be glad when it's over!
Lynn and Dani are two teen girls with too much time on their hands. They are poster children for child molesters--spend unsupervised time online, have access to webcams, drink underage, and are just surrounded by people who don't care too much about them. When Lynn meets a 25-year-old man online, they two agree to meet, and, of course, get along. I kept waiting for him to molest...more
gahhh, oh wow. This book was so well written, and so incredibly gross. It would be perfect to recommend to those teenage girls who like reading books where a whole lot of fucked-up shit happens to people.
Also, you know what, the fucked-up shit that happens is not what you'd expect. This is not your typical Cautionary Tale About the Internet, that ends up with the girl in a refrigerator somewhere.
Please note the start and end date--I started reading this last night at about 12:30, fell asleep wit...more
Also, you know what, the fucked-up shit that happens is not what you'd expect. This is not your typical Cautionary Tale About the Internet, that ends up with the girl in a refrigerator somewhere.
Please note the start and end date--I started reading this last night at about 12:30, fell asleep wit...more
*This is an ARC copy*
Lynn Marie Sugrue is a fifteen year girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders. While her mother works long hours as a nurse; her mother’s boyfriend is raiding the house looking for any kind of drug he can get his hands on. Lynn is pretty sure her mom is on his drug dealing schemes but doesn’t know what to do about it. When she starts talking to a Soldier online she thinks she has found her salvation. When goes AWOL she hides him away secretly planning on never letti...more
It is creepy and and funny and had me on the edge of my deck chair. The one liners were positively brilliant (My mother is a nurse and my father is an asshole.) And even a week later I can't stop thinking about the book. It's part coming of age, part psychological thriller, part mystery. Zimmerman nails Lynn's voice. The writing is spot on, the pacing quick, and the teen appeal runs rampant. The chapters are short and will keep the reader turning pages to find out how the stories will unfold. I'...more
While the book was kinda slow for a while, the moment it picked up, it took me on this whirlwind ride up to the last word in the book. In this tremendous twist on a classic scenario, a teenage girl named Lynn, plays an intriguing dual role of victim and oppressor. This is one of those books where you cannot be prepared for the course of events. I don't want to spoil the experience for anyone, so I'll just say, get ready to experience a slew of emotions you never thought you'd experience at the s...more
Creepy is the right word for this book. When you meet the two teen girls and learn what they are doing, you are expect the story to be a moral tale of "don't meet strangers from the internet", but the author takes the story in a completely different - and creepy - direction. Dysfunctional families, drugs, teen girls and their curiosity, stranger danger (but who's the real stranger here?!), and villains who mean business. You will wonder what makes the characters do what they do long after you fi...more
This was an interesting book. It's a strong, gritty portrait of the life of one girl who has few friends, no father and an absent mother who dates all the wrong men. It's set in a small town, and the strong voice and setting Zimmerman develops really made me feel like I was there, too, and I wanted out. I liked how steeped I felt into the main character's mind (I can only remember her being called "Flipper"), not that it was an especially pretty or enlightened place. It felt real. I also like th...more
I received this book from a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.
Within reading the first fifty pages of this book, I was sucked into a whirlwind of absolute craziness. In this case, craziness is not a good thing. Everything was blown out of proportion, and unnecessarily drawn out. I felt as though the author did not quite know where he was going with this story. There was just so much randomness, and not much of this novel actually seemed true to life. I found myself shaking my head at the absurdity...more
Within reading the first fifty pages of this book, I was sucked into a whirlwind of absolute craziness. In this case, craziness is not a good thing. Everything was blown out of proportion, and unnecessarily drawn out. I felt as though the author did not quite know where he was going with this story. There was just so much randomness, and not much of this novel actually seemed true to life. I found myself shaking my head at the absurdity...more
Caring is Creepy was a strange, dark book about bad people in worse situations. Many times while reading, I considered putting the book down and walking away from it, much like some of the characters should have done with the problems in their lives. However, just like the frustrating characters in this book, I kept going, no matter how bad it felt for me, because I wanted to see how everything would turn out.
The main character of the story, Lynn Marie, has problems. Her father left, and her mot...more
The main character of the story, Lynn Marie, has problems. Her father left, and her mot...more
This is a strange book. Mostly because I spent a lot of the book floundering about what the plot line was supposed to be exactly. Was it about the emails? Hiding Logan in her closet? The dog ears nailed to her door that she seemed oddly calm about?
There was that. Lynn was so calm and nonchalant about literally EVERYTHING. oh, somebody nailed dog ears to your door? Instead of calling the police like a normal person, let's walk to the hospital and tell mom about it instead. I don't know, man. She...more
There was that. Lynn was so calm and nonchalant about literally EVERYTHING. oh, somebody nailed dog ears to your door? Instead of calling the police like a normal person, let's walk to the hospital and tell mom about it instead. I don't know, man. She...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Bored teenagers playing on the internet rarely leads to good things, and this novel is no exception. Lynn and her friend Dani find their online "game" leads to trouble rather than the simple laughs they wanted. Zimmerman has written a roller coaster of a story centered on life in a small southern town and skips the moralizing and lessons learned in favor of presenting life and the choices individuals make for better or worse.
Some other reviewer hit the nail on the head when they commented that this is like two completely different books in the same cover.
The first half is totally quirky, random, hilarious, and awesome.
The second half ... or really, it's more like the third third... is DISTURBING.
And the opposite of uplifting.
("DOWNSINKING"? something like that.)
Really couldn't believe how this book just took a turn at some point and just ended all,
D:
I loved the first two-thirds of the book and couldn't put it down,...more
The first half is totally quirky, random, hilarious, and awesome.
The second half ... or really, it's more like the third third... is DISTURBING.
And the opposite of uplifting.
("DOWNSINKING"? something like that.)
Really couldn't believe how this book just took a turn at some point and just ended all,
D:
I loved the first two-thirds of the book and couldn't put it down,...more
Why this book is an Alex award confuses me. I don't find myself inclined to recommend this book to either teens or adults. Two storylines gradually entwine around each other in ultimately a dissatisfying conclusion, with characters that I can't empathize with or even understand their thought processes. It needed more depth, both in plot and characters, and something that would make it more of a stand-out read.
I found the first half of the book very engaging. I liked descriptive phrases the author used. I disliked the cursing and trailer trash scenes. For me the worst thing in a book or movie is when something is extremely inaccurate--it just ruins the mood of the story. Hospitals do not cremate people. I've seen this in other books too and it is just so ridiculous.
The best word I can use for this book was "intense". The whole time you just know everything is simmering and nothing can end well. For the most part I thought the voice was good but there were some instances where it rang a bit false. Not sure who I would recommend this too, as some of the content is really dark/disturbing, and I LIKE dark/disturbing books.
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| 2013 Hub Reading ...: Caring is Creepy | 1 | 2 | May 18, 2013 08:00am |
David Zimmerman was raised in Atlanta, Georgia and attended Emerson College and the University of Alabama. He spent several years living and working in Brazil and Ethiopia. After winning the Three-Day-Novel Contest, Anvil Press published the resulting novella, Socket. His debut novel, The Sandbox, was published by Soho Press in 2010, and his newest novel, Caring is Creepy, will be released in Apri...more
More about David Zimmerman...
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Mar 01, 2013 04:36am