Current mood:	intimidated
Current music:	I talk about something you can sure understand
Entry tags:	2007, books

Before I dive back into the Neverending Pile o' Work
Sometimes a book has to be written about. The books I like to write about are one of two extremes: Either they're incredible or I can't imagine how they got past an author, an agent, and at least one editor. Today's book, which I can't ignore writing about any longer, is the former.

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga.

Barry Lyga likes to do the Sarah Dessen & Lara Zeises thing and set all of his novels in the same place, and have characters from novel X show up in novel Y. I kind of like this, because it's a fun thing for current readers to play along with but new readers don't notice any sort of break in the text. As he did with his first novel, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl (which I did love), Lyga sets Boy Toy at South Brook High School in Brookdale, MD. The protagonist of BT is senior Josh Mendel, a star student and athlete who is also the school pariah. Five years before the book begins, Josh was in a closet with Rachel, the girl he liked. Their seven minutes in heaven was cut short by Josh's behavior: He not only kissed Rachel, but he ripped her panties and touched a little more of her than she wanted. She broke away from him and things have been nothing short of embarrassing and stilted between Josh and Rachel ever since. That is, when his careful plan of avoiding Rachel goes awry.

What no one knew at the time of the panty incident was that Josh was sleeping wtih his history teacher, Eve. He was behaving towards Rachel in ways that Eve taught him. And now, just months before Josh's high school graduation, Eve is out of prison having served five years of her fifteen-year sentence. Reading about Eve's release stirs feelings in Josh that he thought he'd shelved. He thought he'd become used to the strange looks, knowing that everyone knew he was the one who slept with his teacher even though his name never hit the papers. In a cathartic turn of events for Josh, he sees he's not the only one who was affected long-term by his relationship with Eve. Rachel's got some loose ends to tie up with Josh before they both graduate and decide where to go on to college, and if there's anyone Josh could never hide from, it's the only girl he's ever known who could strike him out.

I've read a lot of books recently by YA authors who like to pile on the issues: abuse, divorce, dysfunctional families, sex, drugs, rock and roll, what have you. Most of these books have one sad thread in common, that they are so focused on getting these issues on the page that there's little to no development, or the reader gets to the end of the book and feels like she's the one that needs therapy, not the main character. Now, I like a good book full of issues as much as the next reader, but the problem is that too many of them are handled by writers who, although they know how to handle the issues carefully, aren't that great at what they do. The results are anything from novels where you get to the last page and say, "Hey, what about X?" to novels where the entire plot happens in the last 15 pages. I was glad to see that Boy Toy fell into neither of these traps. On the whole the book is incredibly well paced, suspenseful, and full of characters you actually come to care about. Everyone in this book has dimension. Some of my colleagues have said that Josh's flashback telling of the growth of his relationship with Eve was distracting, but I don't see a better way it could have been done. Had Lyga chosen to tell the story as it happened, starting with Josh as a seventh-grader and ending just before high school graduation, the reader would not get the sense of growth and perspective that Josh has (somewhat stubbornly) gained over the years. The book would be completely different, and not in a good way. And if your soul doesn't drop through your knees during chapter 24, then you probably don't have one.

Read more of Lyga's thoughts on "issue" books at his blog.

I am NOT lending this galley. It is staying right in my office next to some of my favorites from last year. :P