Book Review: Losing Face – Annie Try
[image error] Losing Face takes the form of Word documents, interspersed with emails. It covers the accident and recovery of Cass, who sustains terrible facial injuries in a car crash, including the loss of an eye. Her friend Em supports her throughout and the two very different girls struggle in their own ways to cope as Cass undergoes surgery, eventually returning to a mixed reception in school. Throughout the story, friendship and values are challenged, particularly through Cass’s relationships with her mother and with her boyfriend, Spider. Courage is redefined and the triumphant final chapters celebrate that life is worth living. New beginnings and new relationships are promised.
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Review: Losing Face
We live in a cruel world where individuals that are a little different are often targeted by bullies or groups that are unwilling to accommodate them. In Annie Try’s Losing Face we follow the story of an ordinary teenager whose life appears to be ruined forever by a terrible accident.
Cassandra Briggs and Emma Jennings are best friends with different backgrounds. Cass is a talented student with a love of singing but she is from a marriage that fell apart though she still sees both parents. Em is from a series of foster homes and has had a tough upbringing but has found a good friendship in Cass. One night the girls are out with friends when they climb into separate cars. Cass gets in a car with Spider, with both having mutual affection for one another. Sadly, Spider drives too fast that night causing an accident that throws Cass through the windscreen. Her injuries are severe including scarring on her face and the loss of an eye. Losing Face tells the story of this accident and Cass’ attempts to rebuild her life amidst the unforgiving and cruel students at her school.
Annie Try has adopted an internet approach to telling Cass’ story. We have instant messaging from Cass and Em, but mostly the novel is broken up into email exchanges with each email having a word document attached describing events from both Cass’ and Em’s perspectives. It’s a clever approach that works quite well. We learn of that terrible accident and Cass’ slow recovery in hospital. Em has some unpleasant people to contend with at school, notably the bully, Miranda, who is delighted at Cass’ unfortunate situation. Then there is Spider who continually visits Cass as her boyfriend but only succeeds in saying the most inappropriate things each time.
As the email exchanges continue Cass returns to school with her hair styled to cover the scarred side of her face and she has a prosthetic eye in place as well. It isn’t an easy return for Cass and you will shudder at what she has to go through. Prior to coming back to school an assembly is called where a teacher warns the school that Cass is returning and that she has suffered some facial injuries. Nothing like drawing everyone’s gaze to the poor girl. The rest of the book follows Cass and Em as they negotiate exams and there is even romance in the air with fellow students Josh and Rob who act very warmly towards Cass and treat her like any other person.
There were one or two occasions I felt the word documents didn’t work as well as they might. Initially Em was filling in blanks for Cass following her accident. It just seemed strange sometimes emailing each other to describe conversations they had had, word for word. Of course, the reader needs this information to understand the story better so it seems unfair to raise it but sometimes it stretched the credulity for me. That’s only a minor issue though. This is an accessible book for a wide audience and addresses an important subject in how we react and behave around people such as Cass.
Losing Face is well-written with an intriguing use of emails and attached word documents to convey the storyline. The friendship between Cass and Em is a memorable one and although even they feel the strain, Em is there to prove to Cass that not everyone will treat her differently. Ours is often an unforgiving world and books like this one are a good reminder of that.
Verdict: 4/5
(Book source: reviewer received a copy from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review)
Book Review: Losing Face – Annie Try | Thank you for reading Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave
