When She Hollers

Voigt, Cynthia

ISBN 10: 059046714X ISBN 13: 9780590467148

Publisher: Scholastic, 1994

Synopsis

Tish, an adopted teenage girl, makes the decision to rebel against her abusive father, in a compelling portrait of incest and its related emotional trauma. By the Newbery Medal-winning author of the Tillerman series.

About this title

Reviews

Grade 7 Up-With the first sentence of this searingly honest novel, readers are plunged into the consciousness of a teenage girl who is fighting for her life. Tish's adversary isn't disease or physical injury; instead, it is the devastation of ongoing sexual abuse. The novel spans one day, from the moment at breakfast when she warns her stepfather to stay away from her, to the realization-in the late afternoon-that she can escape his domination. In between, readers travel with Tish through her day in high school, experiencing her rage, helplessness, and blistering humor. Readers who want to go beyond the current headlines will get an accurate and unforgettable picture of domestic tyranny. Nowhere in children's literature is the link between abuse and violence (including teenage suicide) so clearly delineated, nor the mind-bending effects of dissociative defenses so accurately portrayed. Voigt wisely stays away from depictions of the abuse itself. Nonetheless, this book is strong stuff, best read by emotionally mature readers. Be sure to tell guidance counselors about this novel, which contains crucial insights into abusive relationships. The most important of these is Tish's epiphany in which she realizes that her stepfather's power, while nearly absolute at home, is limited to a relatively tiny sphere. She discovers a doorway to the rest of the world and with it her own liberation. This groundbreaking book-like its protagonist-is raw, courageous, and a winner.
Carolyn Polese, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Voigt's (see PW Interviews, p. 225) searing new novel plunges the reader headlong into the crisis facing its protagonist, a teenager named Tish who can no longer endure her stepfather's sexual abuse of her. As the novel begins, Tish disrupts the family breakfast by pointing a survival knife at Tonnie, the stepfather, and threatening to attack him if he comes near her ever again. In tackling the subject of abuse, Voigt takes no short cuts: Tish has tried reasonable measures before resorting to the knife; her unprotective mother is not unloving, only fatally vulnerable; no deus ex machina, no selflessly dedicated teacher or best friend arrives to save Tish. Instead, Voigt focuses on the rest of that single, brutal day. Tish goes to school, knife hidden in her Docs, staving off panic--until gym class, when she can no longer keep the knife a secret. Tish must--and does--find someone to help her, but she herself must determine her course of action. The tension intensifies almost unbearably; without sacrificing the tautness of her narrative, Voigt endows each character with a life that somehow goes on beyond the page. An exceptional offering. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 7-12. Voigt's searing portrait of a teenage incest victim tells of one day in the life of 17-year-old Tish, who has been raped by her stepfather. At a breaking point, Tish threatens him with a knife at the breakfast table, screams uncontrollably in her afternoon gym class, and, finally, walks through the walls of silence and denial when she tells a lawyer, her classmate's father, the truth. The author accurately portrays both the girl's chaotic emotional life and her mental disorientation. Also well delineated is Tish's dissociation and chronic shame. As Tish makes her way through her day, she must constantly negotiate with people in her environment as well as with her own shattered and unpredictable psyche so that no one can guess her terrible secret. Yet armed with knowledge and the beginnings of trust in both herself and her lawyer, at the novel's end she faces not only her stepfather, but also the consequences of telling the truth, thus transforming herself from victim to survivor. Voigt is unsparing in depicting the ruination of a teenage girl's life. Unlike several other young adult novels about incest, this one is told in strong language from the victim's point of view. Its resulting immediacy is harrowing. Merri Monks

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 059046714X
• ISBN 13: 9780590467148
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192