Ponyboy. Sodapop. Johnycake. Dear, oh dear. It's an okay book, enjoyable if you're into bromance and can get past the silly-sounding names and the character's weird 'greaser' vocabulary. Short, simple... certainly not life-changing. I have zero knowledge of the historical context and issues dealt with in 'The Outsiders', yet it doesn't sound like a very plausible storyline. 
 I liked the second half of the book better than the first one. The beginning was slow and full of "what if"s, "maybe this or that" and other elucubrations. But the Curtis brothers grew on me by the second half with their desperate, dysfunctional brotherly love, which somehow redeemed the story for me.