Helpful Score: 2
First person account of a neurotic little adolescent 11-year-old boy, obsessed with the lies people tell and being able to detect them, to the point where he nearly destroys his family.
Its a page turner - the narration carries you right along, the characters are enjoyable (especially that badass substitute teacher Mr. Roche!). The atmosphere drips thick with anxiety, awkwardness and suspicion - this poor kid has a normal enough home, but is having trouble making the transition to adulthood, in that he craves the parental affections of his parents, while they are treating him as an adult before he is ready, with all the distance, formality, and relational complexity that it entails - and of course no one recognizes that this is the dynamic. The kid almost goes crazy, unable to handle being lied to in millions of small insignificant ways.
Its not just about the kid either. The other characters are very well fleshed out, and the story isnt just some case study, the story is like the story of every one of us, our small day to day existence, and all the insignificant things that are the engine of our lives and that define who we are. I loved every chapter, every page.
Its a page turner - the narration carries you right along, the characters are enjoyable (especially that badass substitute teacher Mr. Roche!). The atmosphere drips thick with anxiety, awkwardness and suspicion - this poor kid has a normal enough home, but is having trouble making the transition to adulthood, in that he craves the parental affections of his parents, while they are treating him as an adult before he is ready, with all the distance, formality, and relational complexity that it entails - and of course no one recognizes that this is the dynamic. The kid almost goes crazy, unable to handle being lied to in millions of small insignificant ways.
Its not just about the kid either. The other characters are very well fleshed out, and the story isnt just some case study, the story is like the story of every one of us, our small day to day existence, and all the insignificant things that are the engine of our lives and that define who we are. I loved every chapter, every page.
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