Book cover image from Amazon.com
INSIDE OUT
1. BIBLOGRAPHY
Trueman, Terry. 2003. INSIDE OUT. New York, NY: HarperTempest. ISBN 0329389084.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
All Zachary Wahhsted wanted when he went into the coffee shop to wait for his mom to pick him up was a maple bar. Instead he has walked into a robbery situation gone wrong. “I mean, I guess I’m scared, but this all seems so normal to me. The thing is, I’m used to seeing and hearing really weird stuff, so this doesn’t feel that strange to me at all. It feels familiar.” Due to his schizophrenia, Zack hears and sees things that aren’t really there. While the two young robbers began to panic, Zack begins to float in and out of reality. Each chapter begins with a doctor’s report on Zack’s condition and by the end of the botched robbery; you realize that the true prisoner will be Zack. As one young robber says to his partner, “We’re in trouble here, I know that, but we’ll get out of it sooner or later-Zach is never going to get out of what’s happening to him. Man, I’d rather be us any day.”
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
While the story is taking place in the present, we learn about Zach’s schizophrenia through the clinical notes Dr. Curtis has taken after Zach attempts suicide. The book itself is narrated by Zack. As he frustrates the two young robbers, we understand even more about him. Although Booklist wrote, “the narrative blend isn't entirely successful; the facts often feel clumsily inserted, and Zach's unreliable voice doesn't allow his story to develop fully”, I liked the way I learned about Zach’s condition. His voice remained true to who he was, and in his simplicity, one can truly relate to what schizophrenia is. Most schizophrenics are void of emotions, Zach’s narration is true to form.
The story takes place in Spokane, but it has the feel of anywhere America. Trueman creates characters that are believable, and he even manages to help the reader develop sympathy for the two young robbers. As things are falling down around them, one tells the other, “I don’t want them to tell Mom…she’ll blame herself...she’s too sick.” Later in the book it is discovered that the guns the young men have used don’t even have bullets in them. The two teenagers are trying to get money to help their uninsured mom with her cancer treatment.
Although for some “the shocking ending also feels tacked on” (Booklist), the ending is very realistic for someone experiencing this disease. During the book we find out through Dr. Curtis’s notes that he has explained to Zach’s mother there is not a cure for schizophrenia. “INSIDE OUT is tense and gripping and it does not have a fairy-tale ending" (The Lorgnette-Heart of Texas Reviews) just like this mental illness.
4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2004 YALSA Best Books for Young
2004 ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
2005 International Reading Association's Young Adults' Choices
5. REVEIW EXCERPTS
From School Library Journal: "Trueman uses Zach's narration to challenge readers to feel the confusion and dark struggle of schizophrenia. The effect is disturbing, if somewhat didactic. Both the grim topic and strong language in this edgy novel suggest a mature audience."
From Booklist:"Sixteen-year-old Zach isn't frightened when two armed teenagers hold up the coffee shop where he's waiting for his mother. "The thing is," Zach says, "I'm used to seeing and hearing really weird stuff." In his second novel, the author of Stuck in Neutral (2000) takes readers inside the mind of a schizophrenic teenager. Excerpts from Zach's psychiatric records interweave with his first-person account of the dramatic robbery, offering readers the medical facts as well as Zach's personal story, especially the terror and confusion he feels when he can't distinguish between the real and the imagined."
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