I almost didn't read USES FOR BOYS, honestly, because I expected it to be another young adult love story like so many I'd read before. Sure, I could tell from the description and the subject matter that it might be a bit more gritty than what I've usually come to expect from the genre. But, is that enough to make this one stand apart in my mind from all the others I've read before now? 
 I'm really glad I actually gave this one a shot because I do think it was an amazing, memorable book for me, a story that really focused on a young woman's self-discovery and self-realization more than the actions and scandals she initiated with the young men around her. 
 Anna, from a young age, knew what it felt like to be alone. As a young child, Anna's mother would tell her daughter a story, about how her own mother and father were gone, leaving her all alone until she had a baby who became her everything. Anna's mother was rarely home, filling her days with one man after the next, trying to make each one fill the hole in her life that was already supposedly fully healed by her young daughter. With each new boyfriend and husband, Anna's new family was uprooted and moved to a new home, creating the start of a new life each and every time. Each man was a defining point in Anna's mother's life, and her self-perception seemed to fully hinge on the presence of these men and the characteristics of their own lives and personalities. 
 Anna believes that it is in her genes to be a loner, although she too yearns to find someone who can make her feel a little less alone. She wants to know what it feels like to be touched, loved, and adored. She watches the men come in and out of her mother's life so she learns that men always expect certain things from women and then they always ALWAYS leave. She sees relationships as something both defining and transient and she is ready to find some of her own. 
 At the young age of twelve, Anna has her first sexual encouter with a classmate on the bus. She allows him to publically fondle her chest, even under her shirt, and he pushes her into pleasuring him while two male classmates watch the whole interaction. Instead of feeling embarassed, Anna narrates this encounter as if it is something neutral and mundane -- just another necessary step on her way to adulthood, of course. She sees this young man as the gateway into a better life. He will open the door into friendships and popularity and he will give her life the meaning that it lacked before this day. 
 When the first boy at the center of her life decides to leave, she decides that this is just the way that things go. She finds another boy and immediately takes him home, showing him how to undress her, fondle her, and pleasure her just like the last boy did on the bus. She yearns for his attention and she knows that he will complete her life and give it new purpose. Although he manipulates her for sex, Anna knowingly allows herself to be manipulated, knowing that the physical intimacy creates a family for her and gives her the feelings of affection that she still craves. The kids at school call Anna a slut, but she feels that she was still a slut even before she even had sex. This was in her genes, after all. 
 The next boy moves away, and Anna makes her way through a series of other boys, going so far as to even move in with one, dropping out of school to create a life for herself in his apartment. Boys uses her and she uses them back. An older boy holds her down and forces her into sex, and she still speaks about it casually and neutrally -- because this is what happens with boys. They know what they want from women and then they leave. 
 Along the way, Anna makes a friend while she is shopping for vintage dresses at a thrift store. Toy and Anna bounce from the Salvation Army to Goodwill and back, sharing dresses and accessories and stories about boys. Toy has lovers who adore and cherish her, she says, and they lavish her with gifts and give her a home even when her mother turns her away. Anna realizes that she has never had a boy actually adore her and she yearns to be Toy and to have what she has in her relationships. In the end, though, it turns out that Toy has a secret, one that changes the root of everything at the foundation of their friendship. 
 After using one boy after another, just as she learned from her mother, Anna meets a quiet boy named Sam who takes her home to dinner before ever asking her for sex. She meets his perfect family and watches their love and interactions, and though she yearns to insert herself into this picturesque scene, she realizes that she has no idea how to have this type of relationship with a boy. Is it too late for Anna to reconceptualize the way she sees not only boys but also her family and her own self? 
 While USES FOR BOYS was definitely not a plot-driven story, full of twists, turns, and action at every corner, it was a wonderful coming-of-age story that delicately and intimately examined one young woman's journey towards self-discovery. Told in short title chapters with a choppy, stream of consciousness style, this story definitely won't appeal to everyone, but I do think it will find a following with those who enjoy heavily character-driven stories and who aren't afraid of frequent descriptions of a teenager's sexuality. I do think the sexual discussions were necessary to show the progresson of Anna's character, so nothing felt overly gratuitous or exploitative at any point in the story. 
 I really did enjoy this novel and I think it was one of my favorite reads thus far of 2012. The writing style was utterly perfect for the story, the short chapters kept the pace flowing nicely, and the psychological undertones of the ending really summed everything up in a way that felt entirely satisfying after the rest of the book. 
 That said, I think it's important for the reader to have the correct expectations before beginning USES FOR BOYS. It is bleak and choppy and descriptive and heartfelt, but it is not a story that is driven by the plot. It may feel at points like nothing really happened, but this is really the story of the evolution of the title character. 
 I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.