Whatever Happened to Janie?

An alien life form reading this book might come to the conclusion that all American teenagers in the nineties thought entirely in similes and metaphors. Poor Janie/Jennie. The trauma of learning that she had been kidnapped as a child and being forced to return to live with her biological family has turned her brains into a literary slop bin; she can't even think straight, and so likens herself and her situation to nearly everything she experiences or encounters.

Even so, Cooney captures all involved parties' emotional turmoil well.