Review: Tangled by Carolyn Mackler

Tangled by Carolyn Mackler
YA Commercial Fiction
HarperTeen (December 29, 2009)
ISBN-13: 978-0061731044
320 pages
Review copy provided by publisher


Synopsis from Amazon:

Paradise wasn't supposed to suck.

Not the state of being, but a resort in the Caribbean.

Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all there for different reasons, but at Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Paradise will change them all.


It will change Jena, whose first brush with romance takes her that much closer to having a life, and not just reading about those infinitely cooler and more exciting.

It will change Dakota, who needs the devastating truth about his past to make him realize that he doesn't have to be a jerk just because people think he's one.

It will change Skye, a heartbreakingly beautiful actress, who must come to terms with the fact that for once she has to stop playing a role or face the consequences.

And it will change Owen, who has never risked anything before and who will take the leap from his online life to a real one all because of a girl he met at Paradise. . . .

From confused to confident and back again, one thing's certain: Four months after it all begins, none of them will ever be the same.

I tend to be wary of stories that have alternating viewpoints between more than two characters - it's so easy for things to get confusing and disjointed. However, I should have known that Carolyn Mackler would handle it well. She has a gift for telling young adult stories that feel so natural and real. That's what i remember loving about Love and Other Four-Letter Words when I was in high school, and that's what i love this time around about Tangled.

Jena is the lovable girl-next-door type with a generally cheerful disposition and a hold on the last dregs of childhood innocence. Her desire to be liked, as both a friend and a romantic interest, is relatable and makes her one of the characters that you want most to end up happy.

Dakota, on the other hand, was harder to love. His initial ego, attitude and behavior made him close to irredeemable. It's when we see him recognize this for himself, on top of struggling with familial and social issues, that he shows how much more substance there is to him.

Sky is sort of an ice queen, but when her turn to narrate comes it's immediately understandable why. Her problems are the more difficult for her to deal with, thanks to her acting career and a stage mother in denial. Her story is, perhaps, the most poignant of the bunch.

Owen, like Jena, is one of those kids that you want to root for. He just wants to measure up and his difficulty with that causes him to hide behind his computer. When his mom throws him to the wolves at this program for teens addicted to a Facebook-like site, we get the funniest moments in the story and a way for him to bond more with his increasingly less distant brother, Dakota.

Tangled is a very worthwhile read. There isn't much of a plot - the tale is more about each teen's personal growth and how their connections to each other aid them along. The themes of the importance of good communication and an open mind are nothing new, but manage not to come across as stale or trite in Mackler's employment of them. The humor is excellent and the voices of each character are refreshing. They each may appear to fit certain stereotypes at first, but none of them truly do. It's one of those young adult books that has the makings of a classic. I would definitely re-read this one and, I believe, that any teen or adult reader would agree with me.

Grade: A
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