Nothing to Lose

by Alex Flinn

Book Overview

I shouldn't have come back to Miami . . . I've been escaping cops' notice for a year now. I'm no longer Michael Daye, high school athlete with a promising future. Now I look like someone whit no... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060517506
• ISBN13: 9780060517502
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Harper Teen
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 14 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

Loved It!

This book is wonderfully expressed. It tells about the challenges of abusive relationships and their effects on their family members. Even though it is based on a true story, don't be deceived. This book has tons of drama, action, and some romance. I think it is a must read book!

What choices do any of us really have?

Nothing to Lose is an incredibly heart-wrenching book because of the very strong story and believable protagonist, but also because of the all-too-true story of abuse that could have been ripped from the headlines of any newspaper across the world. Michael Daye has been on the run for a year, traveling with a carnival, but now he's back in his hometown of Miami, hoping not to be recognized for who he really is: the son of Lisa Monroe, currently on trial for the murder of her husband. Walker, Michael's now-dead stepfather, was a horribly abusive man. As the book unfolds and every other chapter takes you back a year to when the trouble first really started (though I suppose you could argue it really started when Lisa first began dating Walker), you see that Michael did everything within his power to get his mother to leave. But, like many abused women, she didn't feel capable of it and stayed. For the first time, he felt like he had an option other than just watching his mother get beaten by Walker. Kirstie, a carny, makes him realize that sometimes there really is nothing you can do. People have to want to help themselves. Michael finally gave up completely after `outing' Walker to an Emergency Room nurse and having his mother once again deny the abuse. He decided to leave everything behind and create a new life with Kirstie and the carnies. But what really happened the night Walker died? Can Michael help his mother now? Will she accept his help or will her guilt hold her back? There are many questions and Alex Flinn masterfully twines everything together to come up with an effective and engrossing ending (though some may guess the truth early on, it is so well done you won't mind at all). I recommend this book for readers aged 12 and up. There are some sexual situations (none graphic and none gratuitous) and some painful abuse/fighting scenes, so do keep that in mind. What I'd really like to do is recommend this to women suffering under domestic violence. This book very clearly shows how abuse challenges and changes every member of the household. If you or someone you love is in such a situation - don't hesitate. Get help. Your local phone book will have listings for local organizations and the Internet also offers help. Just search for "domestic violence" or similar terms. Kimberly Pauley, YA Books Goddess @ YABooksCentral.com

A lesson learned

"At some point, when you give up everything, there is nothing left to worry about." Most carny's lives model this quote, as does Kristie's, one of the main characters who has been in this carnival tour for years. They have nothing to lose. As for Michael, also a main character, who ran away from his troubled homelife to join Kristie in the tour, he's already lost. He's hiding from a secret past only to see it resurface to face him head-on with the world now watching. This is a great book with even better morals. I reccommend reading Nothing To Lose for adventure, mystery, romance, and a twist ending. It leaves you asking questions throughout the entire book; and thereon after.

Another winner from Alex Flinn

This story is structured well, told in alternating passages from the present time and from the events of a year ago in narrator Michael's life. The two time periods converge beautifully at the end, as we learn the whole story about the night that Michael's abuse stepfather was murdered in his house. The end is slightly predictable, but the journey is still enjoyable, as Michael deals with anger, guilt, choices between right and wrong, and a basic struggle to survive. This book has a good male protagonist, and it should appeal to teen readers of both genders. Michael is a tough guy, a football player, who realizes he has no true friends to confide in about the hell that his homelife is. He makes an unlikely friend throughout the course of the book, and there's a good lesson about finding your true friends in here. Breathing Underwater is an earlier, and even better, YA novel from Flinn that comes highly recommended.

Teen-friendly crime novel

Terrific, teen-friendly crime novel. Moving between the past and present, Flinn shows the secondhand effects that witnessing his mother's abuse has had on sixteen year old Michael Daye. The legal information is woven skillfully into the story and the carnival life to which Michael escapes is richly depicted.