A review by lazygal
You by Charles Benoit
5.0
At first I was really annoyed with the use of the second person singular and the interminable "you"s but after a while I got sucked into the action... or perhaps non-action is a better descriptor.
Kyle (the "you" of the book) is a hoodie. What's a hoodie? They're the disaffected, do-nothing slacker types that inhabit a corner of every school. Kyle's observations about school, his parents and his teachers are pitch perfect ("It makes no sense kicking a kid out of class for not doing his homework." "Your mother is master of the obvious. Most of what she says to you is either stuff you already know or stuff you'd have to be an idiot not to see. Kyle, your rooms a mess.") - sometimes painfully so. By the end of the book, you are Kyle, wondering at what point the choices or non-choices you've made have brought you to, well, all this blood.
There are so few books that speak to this population of teen boys (The Outsiders is one, and I'm having problems thinking of others right now) that it's a Must Have for your collection.
Kyle (the "you" of the book) is a hoodie. What's a hoodie? They're the disaffected, do-nothing slacker types that inhabit a corner of every school. Kyle's observations about school, his parents and his teachers are pitch perfect ("It makes no sense kicking a kid out of class for not doing his homework." "Your mother is master of the obvious. Most of what she says to you is either stuff you already know or stuff you'd have to be an idiot not to see. Kyle, your rooms a mess.") - sometimes painfully so. By the end of the book, you are Kyle, wondering at what point the choices or non-choices you've made have brought you to, well, all this blood.
There are so few books that speak to this population of teen boys (The Outsiders is one, and I'm having problems thinking of others right now) that it's a Must Have for your collection.