Chloe Doe

by Suzanne Phillips

Overview

Chloe Doe chronicles a 17-year-old girl's tumultuous path to becoming a prostitute and her ultimate transformation back into mainstream society. During her therapy at Madeline Parker Institute for Girls, Chloe slowly reveals aspects of her painful past--the stepfather who abused her sister, the mother who let it all happen, the need to love and be loved--and faces the future she finally decides to build for herself. Told in heart-wrenching language that's sometimes caustic, often ironic, and always authentic, Chloe Doe is certain to find a place among classics about teens that triumph over their loneliness and desperation to find hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316040969
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	10/01/2008
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	553 KB
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

Suzanne Phillips is a special education English teacher in San Diego, California, and her debut novel Chloe Doe, was on our Spring 2007 list. She describes BURN as "A look inside the mind of a young man who is moved to kill a classmate." She says of this project, "I believe, as someone in the trenches daily, that America needs a little shaking up."

Editorial Reviews

Sitting through months of probing therapy sessions can be an intense experience-especially when you're not the patient. In her abused-girl-on-the-run story, debut novelist Phillips piles on the requisite ingredients of a teenage melodrama: sexual abuse, prostitution, an incompetent mother and a brief stint in foster care. The story begins as 17-year-old Chloe is placed in the Madeline Parker Institute for Girls following an arrest for prostitution. She is belligerent, indignant and won't open up to anyone. But as her therapist chips away at her steely exterior, Chloe begins to reveal memories she never thought she'd share with anyone: her mother's dizzying train of live-in boyfriends, her stepfather's wandering hands and the first time she pleasures a john for money after running away from home. As Chloe relives each of these moments from her past, teens are given full access to her thoughts and emotions, thanks to Phillips's clear understanding of Chloe's tough yet vulnerable character. Unfortunately, the most shocking revelation of all-the reason Chloe severs ties with her family in the first place-isn't explained until the very end, which may leave many to wish they had learned the truth earlier. An exhausting but nonetheless authentic read. Ages 15-up. (June)

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Publishers Weekly

"Doe" is the last name Chloe has adopted for herself, a label of anonymity that separates her from her mother and her mother's string of worthless boyfriends. After a traumatic incident at home, which Chloe doesn't reveal until near the end of the story, Chloe runs away from home and makes a living as a prostitute until she's picked up by the police. Because she's underage, she's given the choice of juvenile hall or the Madeline Parker Hospital. A toss of a coin sends her to Madeline Parker, where a compassionate doctor and highly structured living help Chloe to face the monsters of her past. In spare dialogue and memories, she tells a story of abuse and murder, and through therapy she begins to gain the courage to go back into the world and, as she puts it, live. Although Chloe's voice is often wise beyond her years, even given her life experience, readers will stay with Chloe's story. This hard look at one life in a lockdown facility may appeal to fans of Adam Rapp and Ellen Hopkins. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews