Ava Buddy-Read a Book and These Are the Results ~ The Outsiders

And hello there, fellow Greasers.

Unless you’re a Soc?? GAH NO GET OUTTA HERE WE DON’T TOLERATE YOUR TYPE.

Kidding, kidding. As long as you watch sunsets you’re welcome here.

Anyway, at the beginning of the month I buddy-read The Outsiders (for the first time in my life) with Journey, Phoebe, and Leah.

AND I AM NOW SHOOKETH!!! And also here to tell you all about it, as one does when one reads a book that hurts you to your core.

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No one ever said life was easy. But Ponyboy is pretty sure that he’s got things figured out. He knows that he can count on his brothers, Darry and Sodapop. And he knows that he can count on his friends – true friends who would do anything for him, like Johnny and Two-Bit. And when it comes to the beating up on “greasers” like him and his friends – he knows that he can count on them for trouble. But one night someone takes things too far, and Ponyboy’s world is turned upside down…

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🙃 Good Things 🙃

• Sodapop. Just in general (not the drink. The boy. The precious, beautiful, heartbroken boy).
• It takes a lot for me to get over a character named something as abnormal as Ponyboy or Sodapop. My journal can attest to the fact that I was skeptical of the LOVE INTEREST in a book I gave FIVE STARS TO because his name was Isaac and I have a slight disdain for the name. However. I adore Ponyboy and Sodapop and even their normally named brother.
• This was a remarkably written book for having been written by someone who wasn’t out of high school yet. It was simple, and yet so complex. The characters shoved their way into my heart and refused to leave. And it was so short!! Only 180 pages, but wow did they pack a punch.
• “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold…” I’M NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING
• These precious children stargaze and watch sunsets and quote Robert Frost and they just wanna be loved 🥺
• Ponyboy…is actually so relatable. He’s a bookworm. Aren’t we all. He just wants to read and be left alone to watch his sunsets.
• This book feels real. Ok, so I live in the country and don’t have any idea what gangs or JDs act like, but this book honestly feels like it could have happened. It doesn’t gloss over the tough parts of life. And that is, in the end, what it’s about–life isn’t perfect. For anyone. The Outsiders acknowledges that life is pretty messed up, but it also reminds us to stay gold.
• The children eat chocolate cake. For breakfast. Delightful motherless souls.
• The found family trope is strong, and I’m here for it. These children may not have great families of their own, but they have become their own family and they won’t let anyone mistreat their own (but then ofc there’s also a splendid actual family dynamic going between Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darry).
• 😂 I keep calling them children. They’re actually not all children, they just need someone to care. A good portion of them are, in fact, older than I.
• S.E. Hinton, much like Beth Brower, knows that happy endings aren’t realistic (unfortunately) but somehow writes endings that aren’t…incomplete, or bad, or even unhappy. They’re just…bittersweet.
• Honestly, The Outsiders is just a beautiful look at human character and how people who are different can relate to each other.
• IT’S A YA NOVEL THAT DOESN’T HAVE A BLATANT ROMANCE ARC. THE MAIN CHARACTER DOESN’T FALL IN LOVE. REJOICE.

and there’s this. ’tis important.

😭 Less than Good Things 😭

• *sobs* where do I start…
• I can’t, that’s where I start. #spoilers
• Ok, there’s a tad wee bit of language, but mostly it’s just a dash or something in place of an actual profanity.
• I’m honestly not sure what S.E. Hinton was thinking when she named one character Dally and another Darry. Has she no regard for my scatterbrained ways?? The buddy-read squad can attest that I mixed them up. Alas.
• Do not read this book if you dislike crying over fictional characters. Because even if you don’t actually cry, your heart will twist and you’ll silently mouth, “nononononononono” whilst staring in unbelief at the page. Unless, ofc, you have a heart of ice.
• JOHNNY MY CHILD

Epilogue

All in all, a delightful read. ‘Twas made much better by our buddy-read chat (the way we got sidetracked. frequently. was hilarious), so would highly recommend a buddy-read. This book is not for the faint of heart, but I will definitely return to it in the near future (call me up in six months. If I haven’t reread it by that point, something is probably wrong with me).

Stay gold,

Ava 🌇

*wanders off to find a sunset*