Freaky Green Eyes - Joyce Carol Oates

Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Title: Freaky Green Eyes
Publisher: HarperTempest
Publication Date: 2003
Age range: 14 - 18
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Fifteen year old Francesa "Franky" Pierson is caught in the middle of a disintegrating family life. Faced with the confusion of parents who say one thing and then act completely differently, Franky starts to feel like a second personality is taking over her at the most stressful times, a coping mechanism for how to explain her own erratic behavior. Franky called this other side of herself Freaky Green Eyes; with curly red hair and intense green eyes, Franky feels that when Freaky takes over, someone might be able to see her other side through her eyes and suspect that she has lost control. Freaky is the one who acts on the strong emotions Franky sometimes feels.

Franky's father is a famous TV personality – an ex-athlete who was forced to retire early due to injury. Reid Pierson is excellent at putting up a perfect, glamorous front, and abhors weakness of any sort. Franky's mother, Krista, has worked for years at being the picture-perfect wife, but after almost two decades of marriage she begins to chafe under Reid's controlling personality, and tries to carve out a life for herself in a quiet artistic community. Reid refuses to let their two daughters speak to Krista or even see her, telling them that Krista has betrayed them all by leaving the family. Franky vacillates between wanting to believe the lies her father is telling them, and knowing that his actions do not match his increasingly erratic and desperate behavior. When Krista goes missing, Reid is suspected by the authorities, and he tells his family to pull together and support him. In a last effort to help Krista, Franky finally has to listen to what the part of her mind she has been trying to shut out has been telling her – her father's story doesn't add up, and Krista is in real trouble.

Comments: Oates normally writes for adults, and I was previously unaware that she has also written for young adults. This is a page-turning story with several different writing styles. Franky writes mostly in the first person, then later in the book the text reads like a police report of her responses to questions, without the questions being given to the reader – because in the context of her answers they are obvious. Later, Franky finds some of her mother's journal writing and the reader gets to briefly experience some of Krista's thoughts and impressions as well, in her own words. It is easy to become frustrated with Franky because she usually allows herself to be controlled by her abusive father, excusing his words and actions while he is constantly threatening his young daughters and influencing their perception of their mother's actions with his lies and theatrics. Ultimately, Franky does the right thing and tears off the blinders her father has been controlling her with, putting together the pieces and relying on an outside ally – Krista's sister, Franky's aunt Vicky – to help Krista as best they can. Throughout the book, however, it is frustrating to read Franky's words and recognize how she is being controlled by her father. This is more of a psychological YA novel than any I've read previously. The end is satisfying but the story is painful. Teen readers will be forced to think about how what people say and how they act may not match up – and how important it is to think for oneself and try to step outside of an emotional situation in order to judge what is really happening.

Dates Read: 25 – 30 January