UB Libraries Book Group discussion

To get the discussion started, tell us what you thought about either of the two main characters. Did you like them? Why or why not? Were they true-to-life? (believable, identifiable, etc.?) Did they behave in understandable ways?

I just finished it last night. The two main characters were not like any high schoolers I know, but they seem to be the type that are always in this sort of book. I don't know if I liked them so much as felt bad for the pain they had to endure. But it was nice to see the narrator growing up and learning that people are not one-dimensional.

Notice: I haven't finished it yet. But, I did like how contemporary the book is. In a way, it reminds me of the Judy Blume books I used to read- they have a specific audience in mind and are attuned to what kids lives are like- Although, this book is darker than I remember the Blume books. But that's a reflection of the times.

I just finished last night as well. I didn't like Kyra at all at the beginning. I was afraid she'd be the "quirky girl who takes the good boy off track" character that you sometimes see (like in Paper Towns by John Green). By the end of the book, though, I think that it was obvious that she was just a very broken girl who really needed help.

Fanboy was a stereotype, too, of the geeky kid who feels like an outsider. I think he had that typical teenage myopic viewpoint of the world, that everything must be the way he perceives it, because how could his perception possibly be wrong? I was really happy to see him grow throughout the book, though, and realize that, as Ellen said, people aren't one-dimensional.

And may I say that Barry Lyga wrote the most nauseating description of a migraine I think I've ever read? I was honestly on the verge of getting a migraine while reading about Fanboy's. Lyga is either a migraineur or has a very close relationship with one.

Thank you all for your comments so far. I agree with Stacy that the two main characters were stereotypes in many ways, but I identified very easily with Fanboy. I thought his confusion and cluelessness about girls in general (and Goth Girl in particular) was realistic and understandable.

I'm curious to learn whether there were any scenes that you all found surprising, unexpected, or NOT stereotypical.

For me, one of the stand-out moments was when the "step-fascist" offers to give Fanboy a ride to the comic show. Not only because he was behaving against type, but that he was making an effort to reach out. And even better, that he appreciated Fanboy's dedication, persistence, and hard work in achieving his artistic goals, even thought the stepfather didn't understand or identify with those goals.

I agree about the step-fascist giving him a ride moment. Although it almost seemed a bit too corny when the stepfather also bought the kind of potato chips that the narrator likes instead of his own.

The situation with getting back at the bully in gym and then seeing the principal didn't really surprise me by itself. But the detailed nuances of it surprised me, the way he thought ahead and made sure he could explain the pepper smell on his hands, blackmailing the principal, etc. It also made me sad that the adults in power in these novels always seem to be so corrupt.

As someone who knows next to nothing about the comic book/graphic novel world, I missed a lot of the details about the various authors and types of comic books. Although thanks to this book group, I do know who Neil Gaiman is and I got the Blankets reference :-) I should have but didn't look it up -- I assume Bendis is a real author? What is the story on him?

I felt the same way about the stepfather giving him a ride, though I think it, along with the potato chip thing, were "out of the blue" only in that Fanboy wasn't prepared for them. It could have been that the stepfather was looking for opportunities like this for a while, and Fanboy just couldn't see them, or just assumed the worst. Perhaps SF's puttering around in the basement was his way of trying to draw out FB, to try to get closer to him, however ineptly.

One aspect I liked was that Fanboy was so wrapped up in his own perceived misery that he couldn't empathize or identify with the adults around him--regardless of how smart and perceptive he was. That part did seem realistic to me.

I agree with Ellen's comments about the way adults are portrayed here, especially the teachers and principals. I suppose they are easy targets, but I get really tired of this approach on TV shows and movies, etc. --the teens are so smart and "with it," while the adults are always clueless and ineffectual, or worse. On the other hand, that may be how teens perceive the world.

Regarding Bendis, he is a real comics writer. I suspect Lyga discussed this plot point with Bendis before using it, but perhaps not. Bendis is an award-winning writer who has done some great superhero work for Marvel, but he started out doing really diferent crime stories. He also does an interesting series called "Powers," which combines police-procedural with superhero. Another Bendis title I really enjoyed was called "Alias," about a female superhero who doesn't cut it in the spandex world so she opts out and becomes a private detective.

A part that was unexpected for Fanboy, but not for me, was when he was in the car with Cal on the way to the party and saw that the "jocks" pick on each other just as much as they pick on other people. I think that, prior to that, FB saw the Jocks as a single entity, kind of like The Borg, who thought as one mind and acted as one body. Another step on his path to realizing that maybe he's been misjudging people.

I don't know if anyone else felt this way, but I wanted to know more about Kyra's story and was a bit frustrated at not being able to learn about her story.

Ellen, I think that there's a follow-up book to this one that tells Kyra's story.

I didn't care for Kyra very much, but once it became clear how screwed up she was, I had a bit more sympathy for her. At first she came across as someone who was sticking her finger up at the system just for the sake of it, and I really can't stand that kind of person.

One moment that surprised me at first was when FBs mom talked about her coworkers throwing a baby shower. She said, "I didn't think they even liked me." She was portrayed as anti-social, but her misperceptions about people certainly fed FBs.