49 pages • 1 hour read
Twisted
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Chapters 1-10 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
We meet seventeen-year-old Tyler Miller on a hot summer day as he works on his high school roof with the school’s maintenance crew. We soon learn that Tyler is here because of the so-called “Foul Deed” he committed during the last school year, involving spray-painting misspelled insults on school property. As part of his punishment, he must complete several hours of community service and stay out of trouble. From the roof, Tyler looks down to the high school parking lot where he sees several girls participating in a car wash. One of them is Bethany Milbury, one of the prettiest and most popular girls in school. The maintenance crew leer at the young girls until Tyler’s father, Bill, pulls up in his Mercedes.
Chapter 2 Summary
Tyler gets into his father’s car just as his father takes a work-related call. His mother, Linda, is also in the car; the couple has just come from their couples-therapy session. Tyler thinks to himself, “[m]eet my mother: pet photographer, cake baker, nice lady who smells faintly of gin” (6). Tyler’s mother waves to Bethany, who comes over to the car and greets Tyler.
Chapter 3 Summary
The Millers drive through the Hampton Estates neighborhood where the Milburys live. It’s evident they all feel inferior in different ways. Hannah laments that she has to go at all. Bill makes it clear that this is a business function and he needs his family to behave themselves.
Tyler explains to the reader how he ended up on probation to begin with. He was tired of being anonymous: “[g]irls would look straight at me and never see the writhing masculine beast hidden inside my hundred thirty-five pounds of veal-white man-flesh” (9). So, he decided to pull a prank that would make him famous: vandalizing the school with spray paint. He was so nervous, he left his wallet behind, making it very easy for police to identify the perp.
Chapter 4 Summary
As the Millers walk toward the party, it becomes clear that they may have not even been invited, and that Mrs. Miller’s pasta salad is definitely unwelcome. She ditches the pasta salad in the bushes and greets the hosts. Tyler observes that the place is packed with rich kids.
Tyler spots Bethany and admires her from afar while Mrs. Milbury comments on how Tyler’s appearance has changed for the better. “He’s six-three and one ninety-five,” Mrs. Miller proudly proclaims (12).
Chapter 5 Summary
Bill, Tyler’s father, and Brice Milbury, Bill’s boss, exchange awkward banter as Chip, Bethany’s twin brother, asks Tyler if they let him work out in prison. Mr. Milbury admires how much Tyler has bulked up by doing manual labor over the summer. Egged on by his father, Chip challenges Tyler to arm wrestle. Even though Tyler could easily beat Chip, Tyler is concerned about beating his father’s boss’s son, so he lets Chip win.
Chapter 6 Summary
Chip celebrates his victory and has to be chastised by his father before he will shake Tyler’s hand. Chip pretends to give Tyler a friendly pat but pushes Tyler forward. Tyler goes sailing into Bethany, who is in front of several waiters with dozens of glass champagne flutes. The trays of champagne go crashing down and Bethany, who is barefoot, ends up bearing the brunt of the injuries.
Chapter 7 Summary
Tyler and his family are mortified. It’s here Tyler first indicates his bout with suicidal thoughts: “[b]efore we left, I found one of the doctors who had helped me and quietly asked him to slit my throat. The guy said no and told me I should talk to my family doc about antidepressants” (20).
Chapter 8 Summary
After the party, Tyler spends the evening playing a video game in which his character is a demon in hell who will either end up the Lord of Darkness or will escape from hell. Tyler is not sure which outcome he’d prefer. He recalls a little league game from his youth where his father and grandfather decided he was a “pansy”: “Miller men were disciplined. Miller men followed the rules. Miller men toughed it out; they ate dirt and went for the kill” (21).
Chapter 9 Summary
The next morning, Tyler wakes at five a.m. to go to work at his landscaping job. His best friend, Calvin (hereafter known as Yoda), comes to pick him up and asks about the accident at the party. Tyler is disheartened to hear that the news has traveled so fast.
Their assignment for the day is at Evergreen Haven, where, Tyler notes, “we sent my grandparents to die” (23). Tyler has to dig a hole which, he finds, he has an affinity for, in spite of the pain it causes him and the heat of the day. By the time his work is done, he’s dug a hole even deeper than necessary.
Chapter 10 Summary
Tyler comes home to an empty house and showers. He realizes his father is down in his basement retreat, listening to opera. He opens the door to the basement but doesn't answer his father when his father asks who is there.
Tyler recalls that his father used to be fun, easy going, and a good guy. As time has gone on and his work responsibilities have increased, so has his stress level, and his temper has gotten shorter. Tyler remarks, “[n]ow he was a dragon hiding in the skin of a small man” (28).
After lying down on his bed, Tyler thinks about having to return to school in two days and begins again to fantasize about dying, specifically by suicide.
Chapters 1-10 Analysis
The first part of the book is primarily focused on setting up the relationships between characters. Status between the students and adults in the novel are highlighted. Tyler, our protagonist, has undergone a major shift over the summer, not just physically, but in his level of popularity as well. Because of his prank, he now has a certain cache at school he never had before. In many ways, he still feels like the same anonymous pipsqueak inside, however, and he has difficulty reconciling his new persona with his feelings of insecurity.
The Millers are a functioning but troubled family, experiencing many normal stressors that are compounded by Tyler’s probation and Bill’s work. Bill and Linda attend weekly counseling sessions to work on their marriage. While Bill handles his stress by retreating or hollering, Linda treats hers by drinking and trying to defend her husband to her children. At times, Bill and Linda appear to be a cohesive unit, but typically they are at odds about how to parent Tyler in particular. Apart from one or two major misdeeds, Hannah appears to get along with her parents and doesn’t rock the boat too much.
A major theme that presents itself in the first section of the book is anger management. Tyler is learning to manage his feelings of helplessness through manual labor, which has the side benefit of improving his appearance. When his anger flares, Tyler finds himself fantasizing about doing violence to whomever has set him off, whether the school bully or his own father. Throughout the novel, we find that several characters have difficulty managing their emotions. Bill, Tyler’s father and primary male role model, throws temper tantrums frequently; consequently, his blood pressure is sky-high. Meanwhile, Linda self-medicates through drinking.
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