Blood and Guts in High School

Habe mir das Buch im Rahmen der 24für24 Challenge gekauft und wurde erwartungsgemäß verstört. Das Buch fängt damit an, dass ein Mädel aus der Highschool von ihrem Vater nicht mehr gev*gelt wird und daran zerbricht. Im laufe des Buches wird der Buch des Mädchens immer deutlicher und ich konnte nur noch Mitleid mit ihr und Ekel über den Vater empfinden. Von der Aufmachung her ist das Buch was ganz anderes. Auf den 206 Seiten finden wir Skizzen, Dialoge, Beschreibungen und Karten. Ein ganz anderes Leseerlebnis in jeglicher Hinsicht.

So this is story about Janey, a ten-yea-old girl, half-orphan, living with her father who to her is "boyfriend, brother, sister, money, amusement, and father" - and we might add sexual partner. First he rapes her, then she willingly has sex with him because it makes her feel loved. She is suffering from pelvic inflammatory disease, has her first abortion with 13, her second one a month later. Her father sends her to New York City, where apparrently she lives on her own, joins a gang and later is kidnapped, held captive and taught how to be a prostitute. At the age of 14 she gets cancer and dies. Blood and Guts in High School clearly is a book not for everyone - including me. It is just the type of book I as a teenager would have called "problem book" and which I already hated back then. It now is a Penguin Modern Classic and I really don't see the reason why because usually the titles in this series are of a certain quality. The only reason I'm rating this book two stars instead of one is the writing technique Kathy Acker uses - collage. The story is told from Janey's perspective but alternates between first and third person narration. There are multiple drawings (especially ones of sexual organs), poems, letters etc. (for example the first scene of the book is written as a drama scene). This could have made a decent book but I had a problem with Janey's thoughts. At the end of the book she is 14 but hardly had any education. During her imprisonment she reads The Scarlet Letter, completely understands it and knows how to interpret it. This is quite unlikely as are many of her other thoughts - they are the thoughts of someone maybe 20 years old or older. (I received a free digital copy via Netgalley/ the publisher. Thanks for the opportunity!)