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A review by blutterfly
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
5.0
WONDER
R.J. Palacio
[*****] 5 Stars.
If I act like the objective grown-up I'm supposed to be, I should give this book 4 stars. Problem with that would be that I love my "Queen of Biased Feels" title a little bit to much so yeah... there goes being mature. 5 SHINY RED STARS FOR YOU, BUDDY! *smiley face*
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Okay, I should try to redeem myself or something here. I'm physically disabled, or handicapped, or whatever normal people think people with medical issues are, and have been using crutches to walk ever since I can remember.
Side Note: I've always had problems with the word "normal". That's a word used in Physics for a kind of force. It's also used to casually describe the weather. That's about it. People misuse it for "common" when they're trying to mean "average". No living thing can be normal!
This may seem like a random invite to my personal life but it's not; it's my reason for why I'm specifically and extremely biased when it comes to "Wonder" and the emotions it evokes in me. All those things Auggie (the protagonist) has gone through, I've experienced at one or another point in my life. It's baffling and extremelly tiring to have to pretend not to notice strangers on the street throwing furtive looks your way when you're just innocently strolling down the street and had never comitted any type of crime to justify their behavior. Now, how am I supposed to NOT give this book the whole 5 stars?
Protagonist was too naive and forgave too easily for my liking. There's a few situations in where I would have reacted in a different way than him, even at his age (10 years old), but then again I'm a different person myself, more detached towards people (darn defense mechanisms!). Still, for the most part it felt a lot like reading my autobiography.
Aside from Auggie, I disliked every single character in the book with only three exceptions. Either they annoyed me, bored me or made me feel betrayed on his part. Every one of them, except for the one exception, got on his good side by the end of the story. I don't quite get how he can be so understanding to the point of Oh-My-God-what-are-you-doing? but whatever, apparently I'm a cold-hearted hater of humanity or something along those lines.
This spoiler/rant over here is what irked me the most:
Moving on, moving on... Since it's targeted to young kids, I guess the author wanted to deliver us a lesson or two about kindness, courage and hope. She did a good job but by the end of it all it was a little bit too hopeful. I love the feeling, I swear I do, but it's so not how reality works. If this were real life, poor Auggie would have had it a heck of a lot worse than this.
A few necessary mentions: The parents are all kinds of kick-ass and I'm adopting them as my own, I don't care that they're fictional characters. Summer is an extremelly good friend and everyone should be just like her, kinda-weird-and-awkward people are always the best sort of people.
Favorite Character: Mr. Tushman. What is this man anyway? I'm not even sure there's someone infinitesimally similar to him in existence. Award for most awesomesauce awesomeness in a human being ever in forever and ever, ever goes to him. Cheers! *clapclapclap*
Favorite Quotes: "'Shall we make a new rule of life... always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary.'" — Mr. Tushman (extracted from The Little White Bird by J. M. Barrie), page 299.
Favorite Chapters: A Simple Thing; Awards; Floating.
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Song: Warrior by Demi Lovato.
R.J. Palacio
[*****] 5 Stars.
If I act like the objective grown-up I'm supposed to be, I should give this book 4 stars. Problem with that would be that I love my "Queen of Biased Feels" title a little bit to much so yeah... there goes being mature. 5 SHINY RED STARS FOR YOU, BUDDY! *smiley face*
-----
Okay, I should try to redeem myself or something here. I'm physically disabled, or handicapped, or whatever normal people think people with medical issues are, and have been using crutches to walk ever since I can remember.
Side Note: I've always had problems with the word "normal". That's a word used in Physics for a kind of force. It's also used to casually describe the weather. That's about it. People misuse it for "common" when they're trying to mean "average". No living thing can be normal!
This may seem like a random invite to my personal life but it's not; it's my reason for why I'm specifically and extremely biased when it comes to "Wonder" and the emotions it evokes in me. All those things Auggie (the protagonist) has gone through, I've experienced at one or another point in my life. It's baffling and extremelly tiring to have to pretend not to notice strangers on the street throwing furtive looks your way when you're just innocently strolling down the street and had never comitted any type of crime to justify their behavior. Now, how am I supposed to NOT give this book the whole 5 stars?
Protagonist was too naive and forgave too easily for my liking. There's a few situations in where I would have reacted in a different way than him, even at his age (10 years old), but then again I'm a different person myself, more detached towards people (darn defense mechanisms!). Still, for the most part it felt a lot like reading my autobiography.
Aside from Auggie, I disliked every single character in the book with only three exceptions. Either they annoyed me, bored me or made me feel betrayed on his part. Every one of them, except for the one exception, got on his good side by the end of the story. I don't quite get how he can be so understanding to the point of Oh-My-God-what-are-you-doing? but whatever, apparently I'm a cold-hearted hater of humanity or something along those lines.
This spoiler/rant over here is what irked me the most:
Spoiler
Again, what the heck is this bullsh*t? Your "best friend" rips your heart off right out of your chest but oh, he sent you a "Hope u friend me agen cuz im really sorry" text message and all of a sudden everything's alright? Really?!Moving on, moving on... Since it's targeted to young kids, I guess the author wanted to deliver us a lesson or two about kindness, courage and hope. She did a good job but by the end of it all it was a little bit too hopeful. I love the feeling, I swear I do, but it's so not how reality works. If this were real life, poor Auggie would have had it a heck of a lot worse than this.
A few necessary mentions: The parents are all kinds of kick-ass and I'm adopting them as my own, I don't care that they're fictional characters. Summer is an extremelly good friend and everyone should be just like her, kinda-weird-and-awkward people are always the best sort of people.
Favorite Character: Mr. Tushman. What is this man anyway? I'm not even sure there's someone infinitesimally similar to him in existence. Award for most awesomesauce awesomeness in a human being ever in forever and ever, ever goes to him. Cheers! *clapclapclap*
Favorite Quotes: "'Shall we make a new rule of life... always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary.'" — Mr. Tushman (extracted from The Little White Bird by J. M. Barrie), page 299.
Favorite Chapters: A Simple Thing; Awards; Floating.
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Song: Warrior by Demi Lovato.