Review of "The Impossible Knife of Memory"

"Tell me this is a nightmare."

     When it comes to main characters in bad situations, Laurie Halse Anderson's The Impossible Knife of Memory takes the cake. Hayley Kincain is the teenaged daughter of a veteran with a Purple Heart, a fried brain, and PTSD. She spent the past few years on the road, being schooled by her dad as they trucked supplies across the country, and it was great. But now, after an incident of public drunkenness put things in perspective, Andy Kincain has brought his daughter to his hometown and enrolled her in school. The only problem lies in the fact that they can't escape their history--partly because nowhere is safe, and partly because that history is about to materialize right on their doorstep.

     Two things should be noted about this book. One: the plot is rather vague. Two: this is a story that throws the reader head-first into the life of a teenager from a messed-up family. Hayley is an independent soul whose only goal in life is to escape the past. She's strong-willed and wants nothing more than to continue her nomadic life with her father, but Andy is subjecting her to life as a "zombie" at the local high school, where she is determined to prove to the world that she couldn't care less.

     So how does she react? Instead of doing as she's told, Hayley doodles on her tests, skips class, and insults her teachers. She is the stereotypical tough-girl, which could make for a great transformation once the story gets going--but it doesn't. Hayley develops very little over the course of the book, and is not much of a sympathetic character at any point. Her apathetic point of view toward everything and everyone in life makes her difficult to connect with, despite the troubled home life that should have made it easier.

     The plot, and the characters, are relatively flat. Hayley lives day to day, doing everything she can to stick it to authority while she bottles up painful memories. Most of the time she is either chasing down and cleaning up after her dad, making eyes at love interest Finn, and helping Gracie, her best friend, deal with her own family issues. When a figure from the past shows up in Hayley's living room, she overreacts and spirals into a half-crazed depression. It's the flashbacks that really drive this book, and the raw feeling that soaks every page. Although Hayley doesn't care about the world, there was a time when she did, and the moments when she gives us a glimpse into that time are the best moments in the manuscript.

     The YA genre is a very broad spectrum. At the one end of the spectrum is the high-spirited thriller with lots of action. This book sits a the other end, featuring drinking, drugs, and domestic violence. Characters curse a bit, but they don't usually go further than "hell". Most of the violence is a threat rather than an action. Some characters battle with thoughts of suicide, and one or two try to go through with it. There is romance, and though the characters don't actually sleep together, they come close. All romantic relationships are extremely flawed, full of arguments and other issues. Although Hayley may feel like swooning over Finn, there are no truly swoon-worthy moments in this book.

     I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a story about a sullen teenager in a hostile world. The plot has interesting moments, upsides in the midst of the gloom, but the best parts are the ones that take place before the story begins--the battles, the stepmom who was there but not there. Most of the characters aren't, however, very relateable, and the main character is far from sympathetic. For good writing and a passable plot, I give Laurie  Halse Anderson's The Impossible Knife of Memory three stars.