Phillips, Z. (2007). Chloe Doe. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.
ISBN-10: 0316014141
ISBN-13: 9780316014144
•Plot Summary
Chloe has been a kid on the streets for four years by the time she lands in Madeline Parker Institute for Girls, a place for teens that have been arrested for either drugs, alcohol, violence, suicide attempts, prostitution or a mixture of these. Her mother immediately fell in love with Chloe's father, a European man she met in a diner, married, and gave two daughter's before he left when Chloe was only three. Chloe inherited his eyes, and both girls his light skin, making them popular in the barrios. A woman always looking for a man to love and care for her, Chloe's mother goes from one boyfriend to the next, largely overlooking the needs of her daughters. When she marries the wrong man, Walt, in ends in Camille (Chloe's sister) being repeatedly raped, burned, and finally murdered at his hands. Chloe runs away, and ultimately ends up being a prostitute, because without a phone number or place to shower, she can't get a job that pays better. Now in therapy at the Institute, she slowly reveals her existence since the death of her father, fondly intertwining tales of her adventures with her sister, with those of life on the streets.
Her Institute roommate is a girl they all refer to as the Nina (for her innocence, despite several suicide attempts, and ended pregnancies from an ongoing incestuous relationship with her brother). Nina says all the right things, and is released, leaving her diary with Chloe. She believes they have more in common than Chloe realizes, and it's reading her diary that causes Chloe to feel she needs to leave. By the novel's end, she has been out of the Institute for a year, and is changing her to name to Chloe Aimes...Mixing her own name, with letters from her sister's, the only way she knows how to take Camille into her future with her.
•Critical Evaluation
A hard look at life through the eyes of a teen prostitute, but Chloe is an utterly convincing character. A novel reminiscent of Girl, Interrupted, but with an edge that those middle class characters never had.
•Reader’s Annotation
Not recommended for young teens, due to language and violence. Completely convincing characters, and a novel that manages to give us hope after being often bleak.
•Information about the author
Suzanne Phillips is a special education teacher in San Diego, CA. Chloe Doe is her first novel.
Her newest novel is called Burn, and deals with how being continuously bullied, can end in the person being bullied finally murdering their persecutor. It's a novel written in hopes that those reading it will learn to take a stance when they see bullying happen, not turn a blind eye until violence makes it impossible.
•Genre
Realistic Fiction
•Curriculum Ties
Social Science
Psychology
•Booktalking Ideas
Domestic violence, rape, drug abuse, prostitution by teens, murder
•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 10-12-Ages 15-19
•Challenge Issues
Almost everything in this novel could be viewed as possibly unsuitable for teens, especially by concerned parents and library staff. I think it would be important to give statistics on how common cases like Chloe's really are, perhaps not to the point of murder, but certainly criminal neglect, domestic violence, runaways, abuse, and teen prostitution (especially in major cities like Los Angeles where Chloe lives). Too, if they are able to see how Chloe gets beyond her past, and turns her eyes toward creating a future for herself, I would hope they'd view the novel in a more positive light.
•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
I don't often pick up novels of this type, as they bring up some issues that occurred in my own family, and it's sometimes difficult to read about them. Still, I thought the plot line was interesting, and it received a good review from Booklist.
