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Monday, April 26, 2010

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl


The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl
By Barry Lyga
Reviewed by Rene
    Have you ever read a comic book and right after finishing it, you feel like you can take on the world or at least a minion of some sort? That's exactly how I felt right after reading this novel by Barry Lyga. It's a fictional novel focused around the life of a sophomore at South Brook High, Fanboy. You see Fanboy isn't your normal (if you call it normal) high school student. He's a nerd, a dweeb, a dork, a comic book aficionado, if you would, and because of this, he doesn't have many friends. In fact, he only has one true friend, Cal, and he's constantly scared that he's going to lose Cal to the testosterone-controlled, jockstrap wearing JJ's (Jock Jerks). And to top it all off, Fanboy still can't find a peaceful place to work on his "ticket out" because at home waiting for him is a very pregnant mother and awkward step-fascist. So with his life slowly seeming to go nowhere, he meets Goth Girl—the no BS taking, cigarette smoking, malevolent, strangely cute Goth Girl. With her help Fanboy is finally able to open up a can of reality and realizes that he can have a future. And that's when the trouble starts…
    The reason I got this book was not because the cover was bright and interesting, which it was, or because the summary was just so perfect I wanted to read more. The reason I choose this book was because in the beginning of the book it has the most mysterious quote I've ever read: "There are three things in this world I want more than anything. I'll tell you the first two but I'll never tell you the third." Now can you honestly say that after reading that quote you wouldn't want to read this book too? I picked up this book and didn't put it down. And because I didn't, I ended up finishing the book during the first weekend of my month long English project. So if that doesn't show you just how good this book is, well honestly nothing will.
    I would recommend this book to literally anyone and if you don't know me personally, then I probably haven't told you to read this book already. This book has a bit of everything for everyone and because of this I consider Barry Lyga a terrific writer. But the people I would really recommend this book to are comic book fans. Not only because this book references so many comics that if you don't know any you would surely get lost, but because Barry actually was a retired comic book fan that has turned into a comic book writer turned novelist. So he knows what he is writing about and it is really easy to relate to this book because of it. So to wrap up this review, I say check out the book; buy it if you can. But the most important thing to do is read it, and read it soon.

Image courtesy of Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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