That Was Then, This Is Now

I loved The Outsiders so I wanted to read every other book wiriten by this talented author. So sense this was the second one she published, I went for it. And wow, it was really good. The ending makes me want to jump out a window but I absolutely loved this book. If you liked The Outsiders, you will like this. Now I need to continue and order more of her books. (also the end of this one has the first chapter of the outsiders, I laughed sense I already own that book but now I have two of the first chapter XD)

I teach 7th and 8th grade. My 7th graders read The Outsiders, so I have 8th grade read That was Then, This is Now. They like the connection with the Shepards and Ponyboy, but also that it is a whole different story with new main characters. Themes are deep and great for discussion; I feel like it is more intense (overall) than Outsiders. As a teacher, I look forward to reading this book each year!

"That was Then, This is Now" centers around the lives of four adolescents. There is the narrator, Byron Douglas, a handsome charming but ultimately selfish and self-absorbed teenager. There is Mark, whom Byron's mother adopted for her own and who is Byron's best friend. Mark's penchant for mischief is too often offset by his winning smile, and he maintains a fierce loyalty to his friends. The two minor but equally important characters are Cathy, a precocious young woman who falls in love with Byron, and her younger brother M&M, a sensitive and soulful hippie wannabe.

The book moves in different actions so that it seems we're reading two novels about two brothers and best friends. In the first novel, Mark and Byron are always by each other's side, and together they witness the fearsome murder of their good friend Charlie, which scars both. In the second novel, there's a love triangle -- Byron has fallen deeply in love with Cathy, and Mark feels abandoned. The novel comes to a climax when Byron commits an act that will forever severe his relationship with both Mark and Cathy.

Like in "The Outsiders", SE Hinton has a gift for understanding and speaking the language of troubled adolescent boys, making us think she is in fact one herself. And the writing is pristine and polished, as always. But the characters are far less compelling than the ones we were entranced by in "The Outsiders," and the plot far more fragile and broken.

Still, many a teenager will find "That was Then, This is Now" speaks to them in the most haunting manner possible.

S.E. Hinton’s follow-up to her landmark debut novel The Outsiders covers similar ground, but this novel focuses on the close friendship between two teenage boys whose lives are following contrasting trajectories. Bryon, the narrator, and his best friend Mark consider themselves brothers, yet Bryon strives to break out of their gritty life of poverty, gangs, and violence while Mark seems to be sinking further into squalor. Add some tame romance, a racist incident (narrated in flashback), and a rather didactic subplot about drugs, and this moralistic tale perfectly encapsulates the 1970s adolescent prototype of YA literature. A bit dated but still moving.