Book Talk: Caring is Creepy

Caring is Creepy by David Zimmerman is a 2013 Alex Award Winner and, well,  creepy. Lynn has a rough life- no dad, overworked mom with a string of lousy boyfriends, small town mentality, sex starved best friend. Lynn has this perpetual feeling that everyone dumps on her- and when the going gets tough, they abandon her. After her friend Dani gets a new computer, the girls spend their time in chat rooms meeting men. One night, Lynn meets a man and they start chatting. She has a good feeling about this dude, so she tells him her name and where she lives. (DON'T EVER DO THIS!) The guy- Logan, is in the military and is about to be redeployed to Iraq. They decide to spend an afternoon together before he is shipped out. After their date, Logan decides to go AWOL- leave the military without permission. Lynn agrees to hide him in her attic. This is when the story takes a turn for the... creepy. Something snaps inside of Lynn's little mind and she decides to keep Logan. Yes. Keep him. Like a little kid keeps a bird with a broken wing in an old shoe box. Keep him.

 

She becomes obsessed with him and tells lie upon lie to keep him there- she throws away his clothes, makes him pee in pop cans... She will do anything to keep him there out of fear of him leaving her forever. 

There is a whacked out side story... even more whack than keeping a naked guy locked in your attic.  Lots of drinking, lots of (unprotected) sex, lots of drugs and swearing- oh and violence too. This book is not for the faint of heart or easily offended. this book does contain some LGBT slurs that are more offensive than anything else in the book. Me by the end of the book:

I am not going to spoil the ending of this book for you- I will let you discover the magic as it unfolds before you.  Through the entire book, I kept telling Lynn to "shut it down." Shut it down, girl Shut. It. Down.

 

Have you read Caring is Creepy? What did you think? Have you ever loved a boy so much that you wanted to lock him in your attic? Don't. Not a good idea. 

The title of the books is inspired by this song by The Sins