Hello friends! Happy Thursday! I hope you’re al having a great week! Today I’m finally going to be posting my review of S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders.

It only took me how many weeks to finally post this review. So I buddy read this with Jenna last month (last year?) and I had such a fun experience. You can read our discussion posts mine and her’s.

I wrote this a little different. So instead of my normal review, I decided to post all the notes I wrote while reading because I like what I wrote, so here it is.

The Outsiders by: S.E. Hinton: Ponyboy Curtis is a young teen trying to understand right from wrong, but that’s hard to do when social classes get in the way. Being a Greaser, he’s looked down for being lesser than, when really he’s quite intelligent. When a fight breaks loose and someone ends up dead, this turns Ponyboy’s world upside down. The introduction to the main characters is so well done. We not only get a sense of who these boys are, but we can visually see these boys with all the descriptions Hinton uses. It’s also cool to see that they’re all so individual, they all have different personalities that the reader can distinguish who’s who.

The characterization only gets better. To see the characters out in their elements is fascinating and Hinton has this was of drawing her reader a picture of what is happening. The classification between Socs and Greasers is very apparent in this chapter (2) and even though we don’t get the full enormity if it, we start to get a sense of it. We’re getting a feel for character dynamics, as much as we know the gang sticks together, this chapter (3) we can see how it is between Ponyboy and his brothers. We also get more play between the classes especially when it comes to girls, which is thickening the plot and creating not only the rising action, but the tension as well.

The plot is definitely moving. A bad move leads Ponyboy and Johnny on the run and even though all Ponyboy wants is to leave and never return he can’t help but think about his brothers and what they’re doing; it’s sweet and really shows the kind of boy that he is. It’s small things that Hinton hints that, that make her characters so memorable. The plot takes a bit of a stroll and slows down enough for the reader to take in everything that has happened and to really learn who Johnny and Ponyboy are. Just as the chapter (5) concludes, the plot is back in overdrive to keep things engaging.

Talk about emotional rollercoaster. A fire breaks out and Johnny and Ponyboy don’t even think twice to save the kids who could be trapped. When the rest of the crew hear about it, they come running. The reunion of Ponyboy with his brother Darry is so emotional, and the writing is just so good, how did a 16-year-old write this! One conflict is dying down, while another is starting to brew on the surface. Hinton does a good job of balancing her plots and not have them rushing into one another. The pacing is perfect because the reader doesn’t feel overwhelmed, yet they want to know where the story is going. Also, her characters are so human and powerfully written.

Johnny isn’t in good shape and this is affecting all of the characters in different ways. The way Hinton uses Johnny as a plot device to strike up the climax of the story is well thought out; it’s subtle enough and not in the reader’s face. The big rumble between the Socs and the Greasers goes down and it’s a lot of action that leads into Johnny’s demise. Now that this has happened, this leaves the reader wondering what is going to happen next. Living in the aftermath that went down in the previous chapter, in which was truly sad, this chapter (10) was heartbreaking. To watch a character so torn up he’s willing to die too is just so heartbreaking. The reader feels just what Ponyboy is feeling because Hinton has this way of really getting into the character’s mind and writing their feelings so well.

This was a short chapter (11) that really takes on what Ponyboy is feeling. The reader can almost feel those feelings because they are written so well. This novel is so strongly based on loss and underneath it all, on family. Wow, what an ending. This story really wraps up and comes full circle; it was so beautifully done. The reader gets closure on all the characters, but mainly Ponyboy. this last chapter gives him as a character a voice and lets him open up about everything that has happened. The way Hinton was able to pull all her story lines and themes together at the end is truly a talent.