Becoming Chloe

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Book Overview

Meet Jordy. He's on his own in New York City. Nobody to depend on; nobody depending on him. And it's been working fine.Until this girl comes along. She's 18 and blond and pretty-her world should be perfect. But she's seen things no one should ever see in their whole life-the kind of things that break a person. She doesn't seem broken, though. She seems . . . innocent. Like she doesn't know a whole lot. Only sometimes she does.The one thing she knows...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375832602
• ISBN13: 9780375832604
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

dull book

Very boring book and I usually like this author

Life is Beautiful

As someone going through depression, anxiety, and questioning life everyday... I found this book to be inspiring and eye opening. Yes, it's a slow book and it builds throughout the entirety of it. Yes, the ending might not be completely satisfying, but the adventures that these two characters go through, their character development, and the descriptions that author has used to describe how life is beautiful grips the reader to keep reading. I now have something to now tell my therapist and I am happy that I have picked up this book. A must read if you question life.

Always look for the good....

Jordan lives in New York City...alone and on the streets. He meets a young teenaged girl who is also alone and just surviving her world. It’s been a rough life for the both of them. They decide to take off and find a better world. This book will tell of their experiences and show us that they can see there is a very different world out there to see and learn from. Catherine Ryan Hyde, you are a great story teller. Keep writing!

Enchanting YA Review: Becoming Chloe

BECOMING, CHLOE CATHERINE RYAN HYDE Rating: 4.5 Enchantments Jordan is a gay teenager living on the streets of New York City. One night, he hears some sounds outside his attic window. Little did he know that helping a girl in trouble would change his life. Chloe seems innocent and frail. She's seen some terrible things in her short life, things that would break others. One day she startles Jordan. She feels the world is an ugly place. Jordan decides to show her otherwise on a road trip. Along the way, both find not only beauty but hope. BECOMING, CHLOE is a tender tale of how two individuals can bond together even when the odds are against them. The story starts off with a gritty portrayal of two teens society has forgotten about. What's different about this tale is the underlying theme of hope that is sometimes missing in similar stories. The author shows two believable and vulnerable characters that both learn from each other and find out that they aren't really that different. Powerful writing will keep the reader turning the pages as they follow both Jordan and Chloe on their trip. Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of the bestselling novel Pay It Forward, which was made into a major motion picture, starring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. She has served on the staff of the Santa Barbara Review and teaches fiction workshops at the Cuesta College Writers' Conference and the Santa Barbara Writers' Conference Catherine Ryan Hyde's website is Kim Rapier Enchanting Reviews April 2008

Simply Because (Whoa)

This book is certainly unusual, far as the YA family goes. We have a gay male narrator, an incredibly fragile female main character, and distressing stakes. The mixture takes a lot of skill on the part of the writer to pull off--but it worked. Brilliantly so. Jordy's in the Big Apple with no actual money or much of a plan. In the middle of the night, he hears some commotion outside between two people. Chalking it up as characteristic of the New York nightlife, he ignores them. Until he realizes it's a rape. And then he tries to help the girl. Chloe--as the girl comes to be called--turns out to be the turning point of his life. The strong point of Becoming Chloe is its characters. Jordy is extremely well defined (the story is told from his perspective, after all). He's well aware that his life has no security, and while he focuses on maintaining the little stability he has, he's also scared. When Chloe comes along, Jordy is unsure of what he wants: to help her or not. Chloe's character is hard to decipher because you never understand what fully goes on inside her head. On one hand, she's got this terrible, literally unspeakable past that we never get to know in whole. On the other, her moods and attitudes change constantly in ways that are harmful to her and unpredictable to Jordy. The quest in the novel is to show Chloe that the world is a beautiful place. It's hard for her to accept that--and to want to keep inhabiting it--with the knowledge she has of the ugly things. But Jordy, because he comes to care so much about her, understands she needs to see that this life is worth it. So they embark in a trip cross country, where they explore sites such as the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Niagara Falls, and find their perfections and flaws, big and small. And it's big enough to make Chloe come to her verdict--just not one anyone was expecting. This book is wonderful for many reasons. The dynamics between the characters is unmatched in any other novel I've read, in that its so complex and unique. It's need-based, but I also think it somehow runs deeper than that. The writing, while rich in detail and imagery, is very tight and doesn't linger anywhere. The characters are well-rounded and distinct--I felt like I knew Chloe and Jordy, as much as possible, by the last page. The message is powerful and comes naturally (not to mention succinctly) through the development of the characters and their discoveries. (Oh, and I also thought the cover was amazing and fitting to the story as well!) This book goes in my top ten favorite books of all times. It blew my mind. I challenge anyone to see if it has the same effect on them. Grade: 10/10

An Intense and Heartfelt Book

Jordy lives by himself in a city basement. Or, atleast, he thinks he does until he rescues a girl from being raped in the street and realizes that she's been in the basement with him all along. The girl is Wanda, who after admitting she hates her name, becomes Chloe. Chloe is a simple girl and she doesn't understand anything until something drastic forces her to. Together, Jordy and Chloe leave the cellar and begin to make a life for themselves. As they travel across the country, they begin to realize that though the world can be a horrible place, there are many good things in it. Becoming Chloe is one of those books where the cover instantly intriuged me and I had to have the book before I even knew what it was about. In this case, it turned out to be a good thing. I found Becoming Chloe to be an intense and heartfelt book. There's very little time spent on unneeded detail and I enjoyed reading about the experiences Jordy and Chloe share, This is one book I won't be forgetting soon and I really hope you give it a chance too.

Delicate story mature teens will appreciate.

Catherine Ryan Hyde's BECOMING CHLOE tells of two street teens who meet when sleeping in the same cellar in New York. Jordy is a gay 17-year-old, Chloe is 18 and a runaway from the public welfare system. Their very different reactions to abuses of the past may change their futures in this delicate story mature teens will appreciate.

A Beautiful, Modern-Day Fable

Catherine Ryan Hyde has the wholly enviable talent of slipping beneath the skin of her characters and making them come alive in a way no other author can. She does not pull punches when it comes to putting a character's harsh reality onto the page. That "Becoming Chloe" begins with a brutal gang-rape is testament to that. But don't flinch, because in true Hyde style, that very event is what gets us to the heart of Jordy's character. We find that he is not courageous -- perhaps due to the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father -- and we also find that Chloe appears disconnected from reality. Jordy rescues Chloe from her attackers, and thus begins a journey of wonderment and beauty reminiscent of "Benny and Joon." While both Jordy and Chloe are damaged in their own ways, their lives together are like a two-part harmony. They learn from each other, and experience the world with each other like only true friends can. "Becoming Chloe" is written like a modern-day fable, with its message perhaps being: Beauty is everywhere if you just know how to look for it.