Walking Naked

Publishers Weekly

Megan Tuw and her friends are "smart, funny, pretty: everything you could want to be," but when Megan ends up in detention with the high school pariah, Perdita Wiguiggan, she begins to learn that the Freak has something the members of her clique lack. While their surreptitious friendship widens narrator Megan's limited perspective (poetry-obsessed Perdita takes her to a university course and to her abusive home), it also creates escalating tension between Megan and her girlfriends. Though the plot is fairly predictable, Australian author Brugman (here making her U.S. debut) does create a realistic, and chilling, peer group (Megan's friends hold "interventions" to keep one another in line over matters as trivial as hairstyle, and organize a "freedom of expression" protest when an older boy is arrested for streaking). Readers will also appreciate that Perdita is not just misunderstood, but truly weird ("Keep your breath to cool your porridge, Kitty," she says when Megan tries to explain why they can't hang out at school). Though the friendship between the two never quite reaches the same level of realism, readers will empathize with Perdita, and with Megan when she is ultimately forced to choose. Into the plot, the author weaves poems, including works by William Blake and Sylvia Plath, as well as some discussion of poetry, giving her misfit character depth and putting more ambitious work within her readers' grasp. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature

Despite all the talk of "glory days," high school is a hard time for many kids, especially if they are not popular. Megan Tuw, however, is in the popular group. In fact, she has turned being popular into a science. No one is allowed into her group without group consensus and when problems arise, they are dealt with in a "mature" way. Perdita is the exact opposite. She is not popular and has no desire to be. She is called "Freak" by the rest of the students. The real story begins, though, when Megan and Perdita are thrown together in detention. Megan has to choose whether being popular is more important than being a true friend. Do not think this book is another one of those feel- good-I-learned-my-lesson tales. Very little about the book feels good, and while Megan learns her lesson, it comes at a very high price. The story is deeply affecting and the characters ring true. This is the story that happens at most high schools. The book is a challenging read on many levels, however. The story line is subtle and the friendship moves slowly. It takes place in Australia and many cultural references will be lost on American readers. If a reader can get through all of that, however, the story is worth the work. 2002, Laurel-Leaf/Random House, Ages 14 to 18.
—Heather Mason

School Library Journal

Gr 7-9-Megan Tuw has always been popular and a leader of her clique-that is until she thinks her best friend, Candace, is joking about organizing a protest over some Year 12 guy getting in trouble for a nudey run (she's not joking). Then Candace starts spending more time with a girl whom Megan does not like. When she gets detention at the same time as outcast Perdita Wiguiggan, she finds to her surprise that the girl is more interesting than Candace. Readers are likely to agree as the unlikable, stereotypical clique members use one another to get whatever they think they need. In a predictable story that could have been a TV movie, Megan must decide if she wants to stay with the comfort zone of the clique or befriend Perdita and face outcast status. Readers never fully get to know Perdita as the story is told from Megan's point of view. And Megan seems clueless as to the harm done to her ("I was sure she didn't take it personally when we called her the Freak. That was just who she was"). Thus, Perdita's suicide comes as a shock to readers. To offset the contrived plot, the author intermingles poetry from the likes of William Blake and Sylvia Plath in an attempt to give depth to the characters.-Crystal Faris, Nassau Library System, Uniondale, NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Megan Tuw, a not-very-likable teen, is self-absorbed and ruled by peer pressure. She bullies people in her group-her Australian high school's in-crowd-and ignores others who are "different" or not useful. Assigned detention for rudeness to a teacher, Megan gets to know Perdita Wiguiggan, an eccentric classmate, dubbed by her fellow students as "The Freak." As detention progresses, Megan reluctantly recognizes Perdita's brilliance and love of poetry while Perdita attempts to lure Megan into an unwanted intimacy that jeopardizes her standing in the group. The conflict between Megan's loyalty to her group and her budding admiration for Perdita's intelligence and ability to "walk naked" in the eyes of the world breaks down many of her defenses, leaving her bereft and enraged after Perdita commits suicide. Thoughtfully chosen, skillfully placed poetry by William Blake, Christina Rossetti, Andrew Taylor, and others enriches a provocative examination of peer pressure, the nature of loyalty and living with the consequences of betrayal. A painful look at the naked truth. (Fiction. YA)