 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book set in the decade you were born
The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton The Outsiders was famously written when the author was a teenager, and it was a pioneer in the young adult genre, dealing with violence and gangs. The narrator, Ponyboy, is one of the "Greasers," the poor kids who have an ongoing rivalry with the rich "Socials." The storytelling is pretty good, except that the author stops the action in the first chapter to give detailed physical descriptions of each character, of which there are many. When Pony and his friend Johnny are jumped by three drunk Soc guys, Johnny winds up killing one of them to save Pony's life. They have to flee, and set off a chain of events that takes them to a pretty dark place. At the same time, the author lets some teenage idealism slip through: the dead boy's girlfriend and best friend both wind up confiding in Pony about how disillusioned they are with gang culture, and admitting that their friend brought his death upon himself. Which, even if true, seems an unlikely thing for them to admit to Pony of all people. Pony's own voice rings true, which is likely why the book has stood the test of time.
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