Carmen

by John Benton

She is all that is evil and good in the hearts and souls of the girls in David Wilkerson's "Teen Challenge." Her name is Carmen.

Genres: Fiction, Christian Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Dawn Michelle]

I am not sure how to rate this now - if it was back in 1979[ish - I was 11 when I started that school] when I first picked this [and the rest of the John Benton books] book up off the "library" shelf at the very small Christian school I attended [WHO thinks these kind of books were okay for sheltered, naive, uninformed kids? Because they had a "christian" message, that made them okay. Trust me, we were not reading them for that message, that's for darn sure], I would have rated it 5 stars. I was totally into these books as it showed a world I had never seen before and I read them over and over and over again. I could have cared less about the "message"; it was all about the details and the "sex" and the salaciousness of them. And now, as an adult who has seen the world and looks at things through a much different lens, these books seem..tawdry and very sensationalized and a bit scandalous IMO. So I am going to leave this one [and all the others that I am going to review [with this same review] with no rating. I am really torn now, as an adult, as to what I think about these books.

[Ashley Santoro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of meeting Mom and Dad B. I spent 6 months in their home in Pasadena Ca. It honestly saved my life! I'm so grateful for them both for their continued love and support.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

1st Read: December 11, 1992 -December 16, 1992 (*** Rating)
I had run out of reading material at one point in my life and my sister said I could read some of her books if I had wanted to. In the early '80's she was always reading V.C. Andrews and the John Benton novels. Curious about it, I picked up the 1981 version of this book and it resonated with me to some degree: turbulent home life, drugs, alcohol, sex, and teenage life in general. Hell yes! Bring it on! Enjoyed the book quite well and loved the change she went through.

[Julie Delille · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads like it was written by a sixth-grader (no offense to the middle-schoolers who likely have a more profound vocabulary than this guy). Homophobic as fuck. Oh no, not the Lesbians!!! Give me a break. And he had the audacity to write “we are not a bunch of religious nuts, but we do believe - strongly - that Jesus wants to change your life” (p. 163). Sounds a lot like something a religious nut would say!!! Boooooo

[Le Bennett]

i remember vividly buying and devouring all of John Benton's books from the Baptist church book store down the road from my house as a grade 6 and 7 student. they showed every tawdry bit of NYC in the 70's, gave me so much information about drugs prostitution and thievery. the boring Jesus-y bits of the last 1/3 was always the same. detox, cleansing, clarity and new hope.

[Lexi B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of the best books I have read. This book Carmen is about a 14 year old girl named Carmen who ran away from home, and started to do drugs, became a prostitute, and alcoholic all because of the problems she is having at home. So this book is about her life story and the way she has lived and dealt with her times of suffering in her life.
Somethings that I like about Carmen is that she can push through her times of suffering and troublesome times. I also liked how she can recover from being a drug addict and an alcoholic for so long. A lesson that I have personally learned is that I should never say yes to peer pressure and I should talk about my problems with other people and not keep them in or drink them away or get high so i don’t worry about my problems.
Something I disliked about Carmen was the character’s she fell in love with. Some of the character’s she fell in love with were drug dealers and drug addicts all while she was doing drugs.
If I would recommend this to to anyone i would recommend this book to people that like or love to read based on true story books and some romance in the book. I recommend this book because it is very interesting about being a drug addict, a prostitute and an alcoholic at a young age.

[Michael Goth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carmen, originally published in 1974 and reprinted in the early 1980's, is the story of a young girl who runs away from home, gets involved in drugs and prostitution, before being saved by Christ. I like the message of being saved by Christ and Carmen as a character. What I did not like so much was the homophobia in the book. This book was very negative in its presenting homosexuality as a disease. I also did not like how the author put himself in the book. I would recommend the book for the message of Christ and the sympathetic lead character.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved reading these books. Discovered them in about 6th grade and couldn't get enough.

[Althea Hurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as a teen (or maybe even younger). It has stuck with me all these years and I need to find it for my children.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never heard of John Benton books until recently seeing them on Pinterest. I liked the look of the book covers and bought a few. This is a scary read. It's a horrible story and I almost quit but continued to the end. The majority of the story is Carmen's daily life as a drug addict and a prostitute to support her habit. The two go hand in hand. Not until the near end does she find the religious house that helps her get her act together. The girls have to sign some paperwork agreeing to make Jesus their Saviour. They also have to go cold turkey off all drugs and cigarettes. They have to help do chores around the group home. Hard for me to understand how this method takes hardened druggies who lie,cheat and steal to become straight arrows this easily. I gave 5 stars because the main part of the book describes in detail how awful the lifestyle is and maybe it could steer someone away from taking that path.

[Reba · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a young reader, I'm sure this would have had me riveted. As a grown human, it just reads as hot mess propaganda.

[Sarah Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series about teen girls getting into trouble was in my church library growing up, so I decided to revisit. If you're looking for 1970's Christian teen exploitation fiction, this is for you.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first Benton book I read. My mom bought it for me when I was a teenager. Maybe around thirteen. I fell in love with his books and Mom always got me his latest release.

[Janna Huyler collins]

My girlfriends and I discovered John Benton's books in the church library in the 80's. We devoured each one!