by Deborah Borsuk
Posted on November 25, 2007 at 8:24 pm

I find your review very interesting, especially since you did not like Fanboy.
I liked Fanboy, but I could not get through this one.

The parts discussing the abuse are mature and realistic. But I could not stand Josh as a character — I found him incredibly arrogant. I do not like characters that are constantly reminding the reader how smart and talented they are (Ned Vizzini anyone?).

I also feel like Barry Lyga has yet to write a realistic female character. I feel like this novel, as well as Fanboy is just too full of female characters that screw up the mens’ lives in one way or another. I think he needs to expand his writing in that area in a major way.

But your review has me thinking that perhaps I should take another look.

by Amy
Posted on November 25, 2007 at 8:57 pm

I totally get what you mean about Lyga and his female characters. I thought Rachel, especially, served more of a purposeful rather than literary role as a character. That would really be my primary complaint about the novel and, since she is a pretty important figure in the novel, this is a kinda big complaint. Also, the scene with the teacher at the end (yeah, I’m spoiling it a bit) was more functional than realistic.
That said, I didn’t find Josh as abhorrent as the typical Vizzini protagonist, but I can see some parallels between the types.