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Randy
When thirteen-year-old Randy becomes pregnant she decides to run away from home.
176 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 23, 2012
Another one that I keep on hand to chuck at people who complain about today's YA being too dark and gritty. I never read this one as a kid, but hot damn I would have LOVED it, and those who did read it in their youth obviously never forgot it, even if they can't remember the title. I discovered this book after identifying it as the solution of a friend's Plotfinder question, and have since seen it turn up on What's the Name of That Book and other places where people search for books whose random scenes have been seared into their memory but the title and author escapes them.
Make no mistake, this book is AWFUL. An unending string of horrific events are visited upon young Randy and she gets swept up and lost in a world of bad decisions and vile people. Poor kid never stood a chance. It's misogynistic and racist and generally appalling, but yeah, I would have read the hell out this book if I had found it when I was 12.
Jack W. Thomas wrote the grittiest, pulpiest, most graphic shock fiction for teens in the 70s and 80s.
Make no mistake, this book is AWFUL. An unending string of horrific events are visited upon young Randy and she gets swept up and lost in a world of bad decisions and vile people. Poor kid never stood a chance. It's misogynistic and racist and generally appalling, but yeah, I would have read the hell out this book if I had found it when I was 12.
Jack W. Thomas wrote the grittiest, pulpiest, most graphic shock fiction for teens in the 70s and 80s.
March 27, 2019
I have never forgotten this book! I had 2 older teenage sisters and one of them had it. I found it and read it cover to cover. I was blown away by the story because I was just two years younger than the girl in the book. I couldn't believe how her parents were with her and it just tore me up at the end. The thing is, stuff like this was truly going on in the US, just like it is today. This was the book that taught me I was blessed with the mess that I called my family. I didn't have it like she did (to my recollection they were probably middle-class or upper middle-class) and it was a shock to the system to see this girl go from all this type of wonderful life to Just writing that last part as a grown woman with a grown child sends shivers down my spine. It was crude and it was rude but it was more likely how it was or could have been for a runaway. Eye opening, to say the least!
February 9, 2019
I read this book years ago and it has stayed with me. Very intense and emotional. I would love to get a copy to keep and reread.
May 2, 2024
Ughhhhhh. I am actually pretty shocked this book has gotten so many 4 and 5 star reviews, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, PEOPLE!
Published in 1984, but it might as well have been 1964 with its openly misogynist, racist and sleazy writing. Weirdly, I love 80's exploitation movies such as ANGEL, funnily enough also from 1984. The movie is about a "high school student by day, teenager hooker by night" lol. But unlike Randy, the movie Angel has a lot of heart and humor, and you can feel that the writers had utter contempt for the men who abused women. Also we never see Angel getting brutalized...she's out to get revenge for her murdered hooker friend and justice is sweet when it comes. However you're gonna need ALL the trigger warnings to read Randy. It's like the writer got off on putting this 13 year old girl through every degrading, abusive situation he could dream of, and it's freaking foul.
This book left the most awful impression on me and I'm gonna need a sweet, girly YA palate-cleanser after this one. One star, and one big YUCK from me.
Published in 1984, but it might as well have been 1964 with its openly misogynist, racist and sleazy writing. Weirdly, I love 80's exploitation movies such as ANGEL, funnily enough also from 1984. The movie is about a "high school student by day, teenager hooker by night" lol. But unlike Randy, the movie Angel has a lot of heart and humor, and you can feel that the writers had utter contempt for the men who abused women. Also we never see Angel getting brutalized...she's out to get revenge for her murdered hooker friend and justice is sweet when it comes. However you're gonna need ALL the trigger warnings to read Randy. It's like the writer got off on putting this 13 year old girl through every degrading, abusive situation he could dream of, and it's freaking foul.
This book left the most awful impression on me and I'm gonna need a sweet, girly YA palate-cleanser after this one. One star, and one big YUCK from me.
February 3, 2026
In terms of writing, this is by far the worst Jack W. Thomas book I've so far read.
Unlike every other Jack W. Thomas female protagonist, Randy is an idealized teen. Beautiful, independent, athletic, an honor roll student, etc. She's a "trophy daughter" to her sleazy, hedonistic father, owner of a fitness club in San Fernando Valley. She gets pregnant on her 13th birthday by an equally wholesome teen boy--it was the "first time" for both of them. Her dad--thoroughly disgusted and entirely unsympathetic to her plight--furiously demands that she get an abortion. Intent on having the baby, Randy runs away to Hollywood and moves into a garage with a young, cocky, aimless, affable black teen boy named Banger. They sort of act as husband and wife, although there are no romantic feelings between them. Meanwhile, a couple of pimps are intent on capturing and prostituting Randy. Banger and Randy are watched over by Mr. Kirschner, a hard boiled middle-aged retired NYC cop who has taken Banger under his wing. Also, Banger has his own aspirations of becoming a pimp, but he doesn't have much of an idea as to how to make that happen.
I must say that I'm surprised that this has become the most infamous and well remembered of all of Jack W. Thomas's works. By his standards, it is on the tamer side. It's nowhere near as salacious and dark as his earlier works like Turn Me On! (1969) and Reds (1970). The worst thing Randy does as a runaway is eat too much junk food. Its weakness however lies in its lack of focus, and the weak characterization of Randy. She's an upstanding young woman with a good head on her shoulders. Albeit one who made the mistake of having premarital sex and smoking pot one time. And that's about it. In fact, Thomas does not seem particularly interested in writing about her at all. His focus primarily wavers between whatever Banger is doing, Kirschner's internal monologues about the sorry state of the world, and the two pimps warring over prostituting Randy. Randy is never fleshed out beyond her myriad admirable qualities. Thomas does not take the time to tell us what she thinks or feels or believes in any significant way beyond the fact that she is determined to have her child.
There are a few terrifying scenes where Randy is pursued and almost captured by these pimps. However, it must be noted that this is not a book about a teen being prostituted while being visibly pregnant, as other reviews seem to suggest. If I could say that it is about anything in particular, it might be the unlikely friendship between Randy and Banger. There is really not any depth here either, though. It amounts mostly to She's A Clean & Tidy Health Nut, He's A Messy Junk Food Addict-but they kind of like each other anyway.
The ending is plenty tragic, though.
Unlike every other Jack W. Thomas female protagonist, Randy is an idealized teen. Beautiful, independent, athletic, an honor roll student, etc. She's a "trophy daughter" to her sleazy, hedonistic father, owner of a fitness club in San Fernando Valley. She gets pregnant on her 13th birthday by an equally wholesome teen boy--it was the "first time" for both of them. Her dad--thoroughly disgusted and entirely unsympathetic to her plight--furiously demands that she get an abortion. Intent on having the baby, Randy runs away to Hollywood and moves into a garage with a young, cocky, aimless, affable black teen boy named Banger. They sort of act as husband and wife, although there are no romantic feelings between them. Meanwhile, a couple of pimps are intent on capturing and prostituting Randy. Banger and Randy are watched over by Mr. Kirschner, a hard boiled middle-aged retired NYC cop who has taken Banger under his wing. Also, Banger has his own aspirations of becoming a pimp, but he doesn't have much of an idea as to how to make that happen.
I must say that I'm surprised that this has become the most infamous and well remembered of all of Jack W. Thomas's works. By his standards, it is on the tamer side. It's nowhere near as salacious and dark as his earlier works like Turn Me On! (1969) and Reds (1970). The worst thing Randy does as a runaway is eat too much junk food. Its weakness however lies in its lack of focus, and the weak characterization of Randy. She's an upstanding young woman with a good head on her shoulders. Albeit one who made the mistake of having premarital sex and smoking pot one time. And that's about it. In fact, Thomas does not seem particularly interested in writing about her at all. His focus primarily wavers between whatever Banger is doing, Kirschner's internal monologues about the sorry state of the world, and the two pimps warring over prostituting Randy. Randy is never fleshed out beyond her myriad admirable qualities. Thomas does not take the time to tell us what she thinks or feels or believes in any significant way beyond the fact that she is determined to have her child.
There are a few terrifying scenes where Randy is pursued and almost captured by these pimps. However, it must be noted that this is not a book about a teen being prostituted while being visibly pregnant, as other reviews seem to suggest. If I could say that it is about anything in particular, it might be the unlikely friendship between Randy and Banger. There is really not any depth here either, though. It amounts mostly to She's A Clean & Tidy Health Nut, He's A Messy Junk Food Addict-but they kind of like each other anyway.
The ending is plenty tragic, though.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews