About book The Astonishing Adventures Of Fanboy And Goth Girl (2006)
Before I start the more serious portion of this review, can we just take a minute to talk about voice? Barry Lyga rocks at voice. Even when I don't particularly like his characters or what they are doing/saying/thinking; even if I don't want to understand where they are coming from, I do empathize and understand. They are surprisingly authentic. I can feel what they feel, I can see things from their perspective. I am allowed into their heads. I, a 28 year old woman, am emotionally turned into an angsty 15 year old boy -- that takes skill.I would also like to take a moment to thank Barry Lyga for using real comic book/graphic novel heroes/heroines and their creators for his novel rather than making people up. It made for a great shout-out to some wonderful works, and a great spring-board into the genre for anyone interested. (Even if it did make me want to go read Gaiman's Sandman immediately following the book.)Now to actually review the book. At the risk of revealing way more than I mean to or want to, reading The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl was very uncomfortable. It reminded me what it was like to be 13/14/15 year old me. It reminded me what is was like to be systematically bullied and picked on and treated cruelly by students and adults alike. It reminded me of teachers who should have stuck up for me but instead laughed along with the cheerleaders they sponsored or the boys they coached; of principles who didn't need to hear my side of the story. If I was right, someone couldn't play in the game that Thursday; if I was wrong, no one got hurt but me. It was a time of hurt, anger and frustration -- of impotent rage. There were no "It gets Better" Campaigns back then, and I probably wouldn't have believed them if there had been. It is not a fun time or mental space to remember. But it was real. There were a lot of times while reading The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl that those old feelings (that I have since dealt with in more responsible ways) just welled up and all of that original hurt was felt all over again. You see, I had a list. But I don't think I am alone in that. A lot of us had lists. High School (well, school in a small town, period) was crap for me, it was terrible, it sucked, it felt like it would never end. But it did. It ended and life eventually got better and I learned that I was not alone. Many of those old "tormentors" were dealing with serious things of their own; some are even now friends, real friends. The problem with learning all that later, though, is that finding out later is a little too late for some. In amongst all of this "early intervention" and watching for the "warning signs" for the next school shooter or teen suicide, a lot of teenagers going through normal emotions are made to feel even more weird, even more alone. It is normal to want the people who daily make your life terrible to go away -- even violently. We humans think about and fantasize a lot of things that we would never really act on; that is part of what makes us human. But the teenager sitting at the lunch table, asking themselves how much further the guys at Columbine or guy at Virginia Tech had been pushed before they crossed the line, don't realize that. And it doesn't help that the very teachers and parents who should be helping that teen understand that they are normal, not alone, are often instead looking at the kid's black nail-polish and Misfits shirt and asking themselves the same question -- how long before they snap? Here enters Barry Lyga's The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. It does a great job of walking that fine line between letting kids know they are not alone and condoning violence against others. It says, you aren't the only one. It is a spot of hope before the "it gets better." I didn't really like it as present day me. There was a little too much angst. I didn't agree with everything it said. There were way too many cut and dried stereotypes. I will probably never reread it. BUT 15 year old Michelle would have loved it. Everything she ever felt or thought would have been validated. She wouldn't have felt so alone in a sea of people who didn't understand her. This book isn't for me, it is for her -- and the millions of other kids out there thinking they are going through a rough time all alone. Review also appears on Chronicles of a Book Evangelist.
With a gritty, harsh view of reality for modern teens from the perspective of a bullied kid, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl left a bad taste in my mouth at times, but won me over in the end. Donnie or Fanboy carries a bullet in his pocket to empower him when his classmates make fun of him for being too smart. He fantasizes about gunning them all down and I almost put the book down for good after one of these scenes, a little too similar to real life tragedies like Colombine or Sandy Hook. But the one singular thing that sets us apart and makes us the people we are is whether we act on these kinds of urges. Written from Donnie's perspective we get an intimate look at what it's like to have the same kid beat on you every day in gym class, a class that exposes you to a whole group of kids that you would never have to deal with in your advanced placement classes. It's not just that this kid is smart, but he's also clever and even as someone who has worked as a school librarian, I found his shenanigans endearing. A history teacher that is insistent on getting one single cause for The Great Depression prompts Donnie to come up with an elaborate lie concerning sea turtles. While I found Donnie to be a realistic character with sympathetic situations, Kyra or Goth Girl was a much different character. While we barely get the color of Donnie's hair, Kyra is described multiple times in intricate detail down to the color of her nose ring. She's larger than life and feels a little mythological with her ability to show up at the right times in several different cars, wearing outfits that can only be described as costumes while she helps Donnie sort through the issues he's dealing with. Donnie gets called Fanboy by Kyra when she discovers his affinity for graphic novels and teases him about the heroes in the comic books he reads. Not that I didn't enjoy reading Kyra, but I found her a lot harder to see as a real teen.The novel takes a delightful turn when we learn about Donnie's love for graphic novels and the fact that he's been working on his very own in secret for the last several months. He hasn't even told his best friend at school, Cal, a jock who nerds out with Donnie about comic books when the other jocks aren't watching. With a title like The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and GothGirl, you'd think there might be a bit of romance between the two title characters. I was surprised to find out that the romance element was not a primary plot line. The novel ends with a few loose ends, encouraging you to read the sequel, Goth Girl Rising.
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Lyga captures awkward misery better than just about anyone (save John Green or Sherman Alexie, maybe--and it would be close). The Fanboy of the title is a true comic book geek: a comic con attending, aspiring graphic novelist, and friend of superheroes. His life is not easy to say the least. He gets outrageously bullied on a regular basis. His best friend Cal, a jock with a closet case of comic fanaticism himself, turns his friendship on and off at school depending on which of his popular crowd cohorts tend to be in the vicinity. His family is--if not quite broken--pretty fractured. Then he meets Kyra, a girl who is even more more emotionally damaged than him and his insular world is shaken to the core.There are some undoubtedly dark bits in the book that will raise some parents' eyebrows: it provides some food for thought on the subject of school violence and the culture of ostracism and ritual cruelty that can feed desperate acts. Kyra's character (unfortunately relegated to a mere foil when you get down to it, like many a comic book sidekick) is like a female Marlon Brando from The Wild One, rebelling against anything and everything, the Id to Fanboy's constant overanalyzing Superego. Still, it all could make fantastic fodder for a book club discussion. And for anyone who has looked down that seemingly endless dark tunnel that is high school, this is going to be a phenomenal read.
—Susan
I really had no idea what this book would be about. I had been hearing good things about Barry Lyga's other book, 'Boy Toy' and when I was at the library, this stood out as well. When I find an author that I like, I tend, like most people, to want to read everything by them, so, I grabbed it in the hopes that I liked his writing enough to want more... and I'm glad that I did.That being said, The AAOFBAGG is truly well written, I don't know what I expected because I never read the back of the book but it wasn't a story about bullying with undertones similar to that Columbine genre that seems to be emerging. But, from the start I had this sort of dark pit forming in my stomach that had me wanting to put the book down in fear of a school shooting scenario. The writing is that good . The main character, Fan Boy, tells the story in his voice and I really had the feeling that I could understand the workings of an extremely intelligent, mostly ignored and/or bullied sophomore boy. I think that dark pit opened when I was introduced to his security blanket, a stray bullet he found on his step dad's workbench, that he carries around with him at all times. I'm not one to retell the story in a review, but more the feeling that I get when I read it. I was steadily sucked into this world of Fan Boy's, feeling the despair, anxiety and confusion that becomes his life in the span of the two weeks the story covers. I would give this 4 1/2 stars, if I could, and it only falls short of 5 stars because I felt that the last chapter was just a bit too formulaic... almost like Lyga had to wrap up the story in a somewhat tidy package and I really don't feel that life works that way. A great first novel though and I'm really looking forward to Boy Toy.
—Kim
Let us take a moment to analyze the title of this work of fiction.Titles are tricky beasts -- you have to be careful with them. Titles, much like first sentences and paragraphs, make promises to the readers. Now readers, as everyone should know, are demanding little three year olds who want those promises kept, gosh darnit. As a reader, I demand (petulantly) that those promises be kept.Astonishing -- that's a big word with lots of baggage that promises to be absolutely amazing and fantastic. For example, finding something that's big and little at the same time is astonishing. Going through a star gate and transcending to a higher plane of existence -- that's astonishing.Lusting after a the gorgeous senior with the killer legs? The tantalizing boobage? Hoping the girl who sits across from you will open her legs even wider, giving you even a better a glimpse of her crotch? These are not astonishing. This is cliche and, despite the fact that the narrator is like the smartest guy in the school with the greatest graphic novel idea in the history of ever, is not astonishing.It's just a pathetic cliche. So he gets punched in gymn class. Why should I, as a woman, give a frack?So, the adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl are not astonishing. Fine. People have relative units of measurement when it comes to the human experience.Fanboy and Goth Girl, Adventures of. So, we get to see Fanboy somehow reconcile his bitter existence with his parents, take off a graphic novel idol of his List of Everybody in the World He Hates. Great. Personal development - except he's still treating girls like objects for his gazing pleasure -- but never mind that. Boys will be boys after all.So how does Goth Girl grow? What's her great adventure? What's her character development? Oh that's right --SHE DOESN'T HAVE ONE.She's just there to teach what's his face an important lesson. And to show off her titties not once, but twice, to make an Important Point (tm). Because a girl's worth is only defined by her sexuality.No Thank You, Mr. Author Man.Obviously, there is a limited understanding of female sexuality here. The sad part? Goth Girl gets it - she even attempts to nail it into the narrator's head. But then the ball is dropped - it's gone, and instead, as Fanboy -- poor little fanboy who can't get a girl or keep a friend, boo hoo -- is having one of his wettest dreams fulfilled as the Hot Girl bemoans the fact that guys just want to have a good lay with her, he wonders: "Then why dress like that? why make it so we can't help looking at you? I don't get it. I don't understand."Frak that bantha poo.Men are uncontrollable hormone monsters. Women are vestal virgins when they're not being whores by dressing like sluts (and either two can become hormonally driven bitches if they happen to be pregnant or just having a bad day).This is the antithesis of astonishing. This is a reaffirmation of the tired old gender roles that poison people's concepts of men and women and everything in between. This is not an adventure. This is just a re-treatment of the tired old ground that boxes women and men away in these tiny, little stereotypes that are too small for earth, let alone the gigantic expanse of a universe just waiting to be explored.It is utterly wearisome.And I want my five dollars back.
—Sonja
