content: I am 31 years old and consider myself an avid reader. This book sat on my shelves for over a decade, when, after growing impatient for my next library "hold", I picked it up hoping to discover the classic that society and the cover claimed it to be. 137 pages into the book I grew tired of the author's attempt to shock the reader with what I am sure, she thought, was a realistic view of character development. I begged the pages for more, but found mostly boring descriptions that lacked imagination and were evidence enough to know that she had never seen nor contemplated the surroundings she portrayed. Worse? They were interrupted by the occasional sexual obscurities that seemed to plague all of the male characters in her book. Decidedly a waste of time.