Borderlands

This book started out amateurishly, and at first I felt that even the narrator's circumstances (she's just been admitted to a mental ward) didn't justify the uneven writing. -Sort of simple and melodramatic at the same time, with sentences like, "The rooms of the house are pale with emptiness," and the overuse of certain adjectives (notably "pale"). Plus the subject matter is threadbare. Institutionalized teen-aged girls have been a fad in YA fiction. Is Girl Inturrupted is to blame for this?However, the writing soon evened out and the teen-aged narrator's voice began to come through so convincingly, I was able to forgive the book's minor faults. Events took place in the 60's or early 70's by my guess, with forays back into the main character's miserable childhood--suffering subtle and not-so-subtle abuse from parents and boarding-school staff.There were shades of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and Harriet the Spy in this book, but I was happy to see it swerve off in a new direction. Dewey made a multi-sided past and present for her narrator: the girl's hellish experiences with her parents took place at the same time as she was nourished by the love of her Hispanic nanny (with extended family), and by her freedom in the Arizona desert. The 18-year-old boy she meets in her ward is pitiable and kind, while truly (NOT romantic "tortured youth") crazy--at times scary and vindictive.Borderlands' best moments came when it found its groove--it's really a love story. Dewey showed the healing power of love and friendship without the usual YA sentimentality. She made me feel it through the characters, rather than tacking it on as a moral along with a happy ending.If the medical and period details are a little off-kilter, the emotional tones are beautifully subtle and realistic. I put Borderlands' problems down to its first-novel status. I'm eager to read more fiction by its author.