The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

I'd never read this book before, and I still haven't seen the movie (although I am definitely planning on doing so after reading this book). My only real introduction to this movie was a poster of the famous picture of the greasers from the movie hanging in a friend's apartment at BYU. But when I listened to Rob Lowe's memoir Stories I Only Tell My Friends, he talked for at least a chapter about his experience on The Outsiders, since it was his first real big break into the movie business, and that got me interested in the movie and the book. And now I'm just finally getting around to it.

It was definitely worth the listen. I loved how Hinton created this lovable cast of delinquent characters--it was hard not to love them all and root for them even as they did pretty dumb or terrible things. I especially loved Ponyboy Curtis's character and his relationships with his brothers, and how he kind of grew and learned how much they cared for him over the course of the book. I loved the overall message of the book about Ponyboy's discovery in his search for his identity and that people aren't all that different on the inside no matter what they look like on the outside. There was a lot of violence in the book (since it's basically about different gangs fighting with each other), but it wasn't vividly described and I didn't mind it. This was definitely a great book and I can imagine thinking it was super amazing if I had read it as a teenager myself. I would definitely re-read this and I really enjoyed it.