- Paperback: 200 pages
- Publisher: Picador; New Ed edition (1 Aug 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330491016
- ISBN-13: 978-0330491013
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 522,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Special is a work of brilliance and insight. At times it's like reading an anthropological text on a strange, distant tribe, while at others it feels uncomfortably familiar - but I have to say I've never come across a book that makes me so glad to be grown-up' Daily Telegraph 'Sinister and menacing' Patricia Duncker, Books of 2002, New Statesman 'A brilliant and disturbing take on underoccupied teenage girls' Maggie O'Farrell, Books of 2002, Observer
Family Circle, September 2003
Bella Bathurst's clarity of vision is almost frightening in this disturbing but truthful book...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
special indeed!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Special (Paperback)
What an excellent book. An absolutely fascinating insight into the the dark world that teenage girls are able to create for themselves. While untypical of most fifteen year old girls, this particular group as portrayed by Bathurst, come off by turns appealing and downright repellent.Every woman will have known at least one of these characters during those uncertain years at school, or been party to a similar group.All the minutae of adolescent struggles is made uncomfortably vivid, magnified by Bathurst's deeply evocative and unsettling style of writing, that smacks of both honesty and exaggeration.A book that asks many difficult questions, and offers no easy answers.Highly recommended.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Special,
By A Customer
This review is from: Special (Hardcover)
Has anyone reviewing this read it in a teenage mind-set?I myself am only 17 and reading it was, for me, a real-eye opener, showing that im not the only one who feels in my position. I think the book shows a good understanding of female relationships, and although most people begin to see this as they mature, for a younger audience i think this book is great. It really feels as if there is a writer there who actually understands teenage girls and is writing from their point of view... not another writer trying to be a teenager and failing dismally.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
it sucks being a teenager,
By Is (Tokyo) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Special (Paperback)
I disagree with Keelis' (review below) closing line, which by the way is absolutely superb: "Overall, this book may appeal to you if you like books which are very slow and boring." A killer put-down, but I think it's a little bit unfair on poor Bella Bathurst. OK, the book is definitely jam-packed with clichés about the horridness of being a teenager - but that's the whole point, teenagers ARE clichéd, and that doesn't make their suffering any less real... I definitely remember the years Bathurst describes as being pretty d-n awful, and I think she does a good job of keeping your attention throughout all this dreariness. Maybe it's a little bit voyeuristic, but it's still effective.One quibble, though: girls like Cat always pop up in these sort of books: perfect Lolita-like little creatures, old beyond their years in their exquisite cruelty. I agree that girls (just like boys) can be real bullies, but I wonder if this not an idea we carry with us from adolescence... at that point, these sort of girls seemed to be the devil incarnate, when they were probably just as freaked out as we were. Or is that just me becoming old and well-meaning and totally out of touch??
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