REVIEW - "Masks"

Masks by Patricia Caviglia

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Masks tells the story of two teenagers struggling to be normal together, despite their dysfunctional families.
Rebecca Jacobs is an unremarkable teenage girl-at least, that is what she wants the world to believe. But her private life is made public when her verbally abusive father embarrasses her at a school dance, and soon gossip and whispers buzz throughout the school.
One of the witnesses to Rebecca's public humiliation is David Miller, the high school bad boy. Unsure about how to help her, he settles for becoming her friend. Rebecca and David grow closer with each passing day, eventually falling in love.
Rebecca's main priority is keeping her relationship with David a secret from her overprotective parents, but there are other problems she must also confront. First, Rebecca's best friend tries to steal David away. Then, Rebecca is forced to face David's violent behavior, which closely resembles her father's temper. Rebecca's worst enemy, though, is herself. In her desperate need to keep her home life separate from her love life, she lies to her parents and to David. When the truth is exposed, she must confront reality-alone. She quickly learns that sometimes secrets are harder to live with than the truth.  description from GoodReads

I won this from a goodreads giveaway.




Two teenagers are struggling to come to terms with their lives with abusive parents. David notices Rebecca at a school dance. Her controlling and verbally abusive father comes to get her early and begins to insult her and call her a whore, just because she is at the dance. He decides to become her friend and then realizes what a treasure she is.

David suffers from neglect. His parents aren't there for him and don't pay attention to his activities.

Both David and Rebecca have learned to mask themselves in public. They hide their inner selves from the world, they need to overcome their issues to truly be good together.



This is an engaging book and deals well with real issues that effect far too many people. Ok, my main issue was there was too much sexual activity for my taste.  No detail descriptions, but as the mother of two teens I was uncomfortable.  I think the message behind the book is a good one.  Rebecca learns to come accept who she is, her parents attend therapy and David agrees to therapy.  Hope that is not a spoiler, but there is a whole heck of a lot that happens to get to the therapy part.