Hi there and welcome to my second exciting intallment of 'What Am I Reading?' For those of you who missed the first...for shame... Okay, I forgive you. You can find it in the archives, in any case. Anyway, in there, I explain the intention of this little exercise, which is to give all you kids out there an idea of how to stay inspired. You know, keep that fire burning under you for those long, lonely days of scratching and clawing and cold...so cold...
Where was I?
Right, 'What Am I Reading?' Well, I'm currently reading three books at once! Impressive, huh? It was actually four, but I just finished one; the one I'll be talking about today, go figure. Two novels and two non-fiction, (financial, cuz I kinda need a little guidance in that area) and the other's a novel called Today I Am A Man, written by a friend of mine named Larry Rodness. He's a first-time author and going places, but I'll have to save that for a future installment.
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl, (actual title), is a book I found in the 'last copies' bin at my local Indigo. It's a young adult novel written by Barry Lyga, his first but not last. The reason I picked it up was because I'm something of a fanboy myself on occasion and I guess I gravitated toward the title. Mainly though, I'm interested in the children's/young adult fiction market and decided a while back to immerse myself in stuff I'd like to emulate. I recently re-read The Chryslids by my hero, John Wyndham, which I haven't read since 10th grade and it was even better the second time.
Fanboy and Gothgirl is essentially about an awkward fifteen year old boy who is depressed. Believe me, I can relate - but that's another story never to be told. He's something of an intellectual and a huge comic book nerd but has next to no social experience and a stressful homelife. Since I'm not much of a reviewer, I won't go into too many plot details but I found it to be a well-paced, fairly moving story about growing up and accepting change and...all that fun stuff. As well, I found our 'fanboy' to be an intriquing, very relateable lead character, with which many teenagers can no doubt identify.
When he meets Kyra, (aka Gothgirl), he finds someone even more antisocial than him. Their relationship is surprisingly complex as is the character of Kyra, who is portrayed with considerable depth and realism. I found this to be true of all the characters, actually, even though through the first third or so of the book, I had my reservations. I had thought them to be a bit on the 'cliche' end of the spectrum, until they - along with the storyline - started to go in directions I didn't expect. I particularly apreciated the somewhat unresolved conclusion and complementary theme of change and acceptance being more matters of internal perception than external perspective, but maybe I'm just a moron who reads too much.
Though this was his first novel, I've recently discovered Barry Lyga's growing body of work, including a sequel to this very book called Goth Girl Rising, written, (I presume), from the point of few of Kyra herself. Who knows, maybe I'll even give it a read some time.
I've just completed an outline for a middle-grade novel called Flotsam, which I hope to move forward on soon. Writers like Lyga are excellent sources of inspiration. If you want to check out this book or this author, or if you'd like to learn more about reading...(just kidding), check him out here. http://barrylyga.com/new/
See you next time and remember kids, give a hoot, read a book.
D.A.
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