Conflict in Twisted

Laurie Halse Anderson, the author of such titles as Wintergirls and Speak, has tackled the issues of depression and death in her stories before, but never the way she did in her 2007 book, Twisted. This is because Twisted is told from a male perspective. According to Anderson, "The idea for Twisted came out of dozens of conversations I had with teenage boys. They all talked about three things that bothered them: 1) Girls confused them. 2) They had been bullied, or they had been bullies to avoid being picked on. 3) They were sad because they didn't have a good relationship with their father, or with any man who could act as a father figure in their life. I wove all of these conflicts into Twisted." And she did. Throughout the story, these are the three prominent problems that arise, or at least the causes of the problems. Tyler (the main character) is confused about and has a kind-of sort-of relationship with a girl named Bethany, he was constantly bullied for his previous reputation, and he had an awful relationship with his abusive father.