Loose Girl (169-210)

Summary:

Kerrys  mother gets married to a man named Donald. Soon enough Kerry leaves Tucson to go to Portland to be with Zachary. She breaks up with Leif because she finds out he's been sleeping with another girl, as has Kerry with Zachary.  Kerry meets a new friend, Terri, who is twelve years older and has wisdom to share with her. Kerry ends up going to the University of Oregon where she has a free tuition and a teaching fellowship. But she starts to feel very desperate again and she takes anyone who is willing to take her. This ends up causing pregnancy scares for Kerry because she was late on her monthly cycle. Kerry finds a new therapist that's like Nora - motherlike.  Toby becomes Kerrys new boyfriends for a couple of months though they break up when they get in a fight in  Toby's car, he hits her and she finally leaves him. She goes back to Tucson to meet Leif again and learns that her sister, Tyler is leaving Gill because he wastes too much money. Kerry's life begins to get complicated so she decides to spend her free time with her friends. This helps her finally be free from the need to have attention from boys. Kerry meets a man named Michael, he is unlike the rest, he actually loves her, her asks her to marry him and she accepts. Everything else just falls in place for Kerry because she finally got what she wanted - to be loved.

Quote:

"On these days, I don't want a boy. Being alone feels more honest." (Cohen 203)

 

Reaction:

Kerry Cohen ends the story very well, and this quote was a part that build up to the finale. It shows that Kerry finally moved on and stopped sleeping around with men. She learned from all the experiences and saw that she was not gaining anything from sleeping with these men, they didn't love her. She learned that being independent and on her own benefited her more than being in a relationship because she would always ask for more than was possible from her parter. I think that overall this book was very unique and Cohen's writing was different, she wrote the truth about her life, no matter how bad it was. 

Loose Girl (127-168)

Summary:
As winter arrives, Kerry goes home. She meets a boy named Eli and she actually started to feel loved. As her relationship progressed with Eli, Kerry realized why she did certain things, such as why she took drugs. She took drugs to pull herself together instead of loosing up, which is what what most people use drugs for. She gets  sick of her desperation and emptiness, sick of herself. Since Eli lives in the countryside Kerry becomes attached to it, where she can be free, where she can be herself. Once Kerry feels like she's loosing connection with Eli she starts to see a therapist named Deirde who's in her mid- 20's. After a while Kerry and Eli break up and this makes Kerry feel like she hasn't grown or learned anything from past experiences at all.  In order for Kerry to forget about Eli she starts sleeping with men, as a result Kerry gets  HPV and is told by her doctor that she can't sleep with anyone until she gets better. As the school year progresses Kerry becomes more intrigued by writing so she works on writing a short story. In her senior year, Kerry finds out that  Tyler is getting married. This confuses Kerry because when Tyler was younger she was against getting married. Tyler marries a man named  Gill. Soon after her Dad and Nora are splitting up.  Kerry moves to Tucson with her boyfriend Leif. She works in a University Bookstore in Tucson.

Quote:
"Without a man loving me, I feel like I don't exist." (Cohen 155)

Reaction:
As the Kerrys story is coming to an end, we learn that she's still desperate for men. She still seeks attention from men because she thinks that without a mans attention she wouldn't be loved. This simile shows exactly what Cohen wanted to express, her feeling of being no one. Throughout the text Cohen describes how desperate she was and how needy she continued to be. In order for those feelings to leave she wanted attention. This sentence wraps up the whole entire book because it explains how she felt before. Though in the end she realizes that she does not need men to make her like she she's important - like she's someone.

Loose Girl (85-126)

Summary:
As the summer approaches Kerry's dad rents a house on Fire Island off of Long Island. Nora, her fathers girlfriend has become like a second mother to Kerry. She talks to Nora about everything. Kerry hasn't spoken to her real mother for over a month, and she likes it that way. Though she doesn't like the guilt she feels. Soon enough, Kerry starts liking a boy named Justin in order to forget about her break-up with Keath. Justin has blue eyes, sun-kissed blond hair, and sand colored skin. But as usual, Kerry pushes for more than Justin wanted and he breaks up with her. Once school starts she doesn't tell anyone what happened all summer. She learns to keep everything away from her school life, especially her sexual life. A lot of girls were known as sluts at her school, and she didn't want to be another name on the list. Tyler hardly comes home, she only visits her mother, this makes Kerry feel all alone, like Tyler doesn't care about her anymore. Her mind changes when Tyler proves her wrong. Kerry gets very sick, vomiting all night and Tyler finds her next to the toilet the next morning. Tyler takes her to the hospital insuring her that everything will be alright. After this occurs, Kerry is thankful for Tyler. As Kerry is in 12th grade, she applies for five colleges and she takes an elective called Minority Literature, she starts to like to read and write. She makes it inter Clark University in Massachusetts. In the summer, she moves in an apartment with Jennifer B. and Jennifer C.. Ongoing parties occur in the apartment and Kerry continues to do drugs and sleep with the random boys.

Quote:
"Heath hangs over me like a winter coat, and I am eager to shake it off." (Cohen 87)

Reaction:
Kerry Cohen continues with her very descriptive writing. This quote describes how she felt about her break up in a beautiful way. She thinks of her old relationship as winter and since it's summer Kerry wants to start over. She wants to forget about Heath and move on, and she is eager to move on just like most people are eager to move on from winter to summer. As a whole, Cohen's writing is expressed in many descriptive ways, such as similies, metaphors, and personification. This quote is not only an example of a similie, but it is also an example of what Kerry is like. She is a girl that cannot hold a relationship for too long because she always wants too much from a boy. She also always wants to be with them causing a tension of untrust to occur. All in all, Kerry Cohen tries to describe as much events as possible in order for the reader to feel like they are a part of Kerry's life.

Loose Girl (43-85)

Summary:
The setting starts off at Kerry's father house, when her father tries to give her advice. He tells her not to screw up the chances she has with her new boyfriend, Paul. As usual, Kerry storms out of the room and goes into her bedroom, cutting the rest of the world off. Paul is a wrestler and he invited Kerry to come to one of his matches, Kerrys dad drives her to the location of the match, Tylers school. Paul goes to the same school as Kerrys sister, Tyler. After the match, Paul and Kerry make plans to hang out and when they do hang out Kerry ends up upsetting Paul with her demanding remarks and he breaks up with her. Though, this is not the end of Kerrys problems, Tyler became depressed. Since their mother was not around, Tyler had no one to talk to, or to let her emotions out, so she didn't. Kerrys mother called every Sunday, Tyler was always happy and anxious to pick up the phone and speak to her mother, but Kerry avoided talking on the phone at all times. Kerry felt closer to her father than her mother because her dad let her do anything she wanted, without the restrictions that her mom would make. To add onto Kerrys large list of problems, Kerry hated her body, she thought she was fat and constantly wished she could cut off the meat on her thighs. Soon Kerrys friend, Amy got a car and this allowed them to be free. They went to clubs all night and did not return home untill four in the morning. Kerry liked going to clubs to pick up boys, unlike Amy who wanted strong relationships, not just hook-ups. This disagreement lead Kerry to believe that Amy was not someone that she wanted to be associated with, so their friendship ended. Instead, Kerry becomes friends with the popular girls. More family problems occur and Tyler fights with Kerry about picking a side, moms or dads, this fight changes Kerrys whole attitude. She becomes rebellious, taking drugs more frequently, and partying all night. On a Sunday, her mother calls and Kerry talks to her. Her mother told her trhat she was aware of her behavior and warned her about the negative outcomes, and as usual, Kerry ignores her mothers advice.

Quote:

"I spent half my life lying about who I am and what I want. I don't even know who I am most of the time." (Cohen 80)

Reaction:

Kerry writes about her life in detail. She explains every little part of what occured in her life, and how she gave into everything. The quote I picked showed exactly how she felt, she did not know who she was. Her identity was a mystery to her because she only cared about what other people thought about her. In life, many people do not know who they are until a certain age, but Kerry doesn't seem to learn as the years go by. She lied about herself because she wanted to fit in, she wanted boys to like her. Though, she realizes that no good was coming from being so reliant on people who did not care about her at all. I believe that everyone has an urge of fitting in in society but Kerry takes it to a whole other level. She uses her body to get boys to like her, and she see's that it might do more damage then might help her.

Loose Girl (1-42)

Summary:

Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen is set in New York where Kerry lives with an older sister named Tyler and her mother. Kerry's parents are divorced and after the divorce Kerry's mother was devastated, all she did was cry and she left a despairing atmosphere in the house. Because of her mom's depression Tyler learned to help her mother, she constantly tried to make her feel better by saying everything was going to be OK. This caused her mother and sister have a very tight bond with one another, one that Kerry did not have with anyone. This left Kerry feeling alone and unloved. As an eleven year old girl that went to a private school, all Kerry wanted was attention, any type of attention, as long as someone was there to make it seem like she was worth something. In order to gain attention Kerry started to go out with her friends late at night to meet up at boys houses, but Kerry had to lie to her mother in order for her to be able to go out. She would tell her mother that she was spending the day at her friends house, though she wasn't. After her mother got over her depression she decides she wants to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, Kerry and Tyler move in with their dad and their mom goes off to school.  Everything goes downhill from there, Kerry becomes a wild girl drinking and smoking, wearing pounds of make-up, trying to stand out, trying to be noticed by boys. She went to parties all night and does things she's not proud of, and her father has finally had enough. He transfered her into another private school hoping she'll change, but she doesn't, she goes out until three in the morning, drinks, smokes, gives herself up to boys in order to feel loved. That's all she really wanted, to be loved somehow.

Quote:

"The excitement of the city enters my bones like drugs from a syringe." 

(Kerry 36)

Reaction:

Cohen has a very descriptive way of writing. Every page is filled with similes and metaphors, personifications and descriptions. She adds details to everything, which helps clear up what she is trying to get through to the reader. The quote I choose is a strong representation of the author's style because it shows how Kerry loved being in the city because it gave her a chance to stand out of the crowd, but also how she related her love for the city to drugs, which she ends up using. Cohen is able to compare two very different things and compare it to her life and lifestyle.  I like fact that Cohen was very truthful in her writing by saying that she knew what she was doing was wrong but at the time, to her it was worth it.