Boy Proof [Hardcover]

Cecil Castellucci (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2005

What happens when an antisocial cinephile meets up with the worldly new guy at school — a quick-witted artist who's savvy enough to see through her sci-fi disguise?

Meet Egg. Her real name is Victoria Jurgen, but she's renamed herself after the kick-ass heroine of her favorite sci-fi movie, TERMINAL EARTH. Like her namesake, Egg dresses all in white, colors her eyebrows, and shaves her head. She always knows the right answers, she's always in control, and she's far too busy — taking photos for the school paper, meeting with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, and hanging out at the "creature shop" with her dad, the special-effects makeup wizard — to be bothered with friends, much less members of the opposite sex. As far as Egg is concerned, she's boy proof, and she likes it that way. But then Egg meets a boy named Max, a boy who's smart and funny and creative and cool . . . and happens to like Egg. Could this be the end of the world — at least as Egg knows it?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–Victoria, 16, considers herself boy proof–too smart and tough to be appealing to guys. She has renamed herself Egg after her favorite character in a new science-fiction blockbuster, and even dresses like her idol, wearing an all-white cloak. A straight-A student, she dominates classroom discussions and considers no one her friend. The teen spends Tuesdays after school happily sculpting movie monsters with her work-obsessed father, a special-effects guru, and devotes the rest of her free time to squabbling with her actor mother and debating with and disdaining the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club. When Max Carter arrives at Melrose Prep, he is the first person to see past her aggressive exterior. Chaos follows this disruption; soon her grades are falling, she's called to meetings with the dean of students, and she starts to think about Max in exciting and disturbing ways. Some of the dialogue is a bit unbelievable. Victoria, in particular, strains credibility–she alternates between acting tough and being immature. It's hard to think of her as supersharp because of some of the silly things she says. The pacing is uneven as well; Max and Victoria's relationship blossoms with little development. Victoria's growth is the book's real strength. This is a busy first novel whose secondary characters often outshine the protagonist. Still, lonely, overachieving girls may find themselves cheering for Victoria.–Sarah Couri, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-10. With her shaved head, ring-covered ears, and a swirling cloak, brilliant Victoria insists her name is Egg, after the hero in her favorite sf movie, Terminal Earth, which she has seen 42 times. Who cares that she has no friends in her high-school senior class in Hollywood? She will never be normal. She is "post-apocalyptic." What she loves is working with her dad in movie special effects, tinkering with "eyeballs or aliens or ears." But when brilliant, gorgeous Max arrives, she cannot help loving him, especially because he is also in tune with the sf/fantasy world, and he shows her that she can be her own person, and fight real apocalyptic conservation issues right on earth. Of course, Max is too perfect, and the turnaround message is heavy. But this first novel's clipped, funny, first-person, present-tense narrative will grab teens (and not just sf fans) with its romance and the screwball special effects, and with the story of an outsider's struggle both to belong and to be true to herself. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; 1St Edition edition (February 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763623334
• ISBN-13: 978-0763623333
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,338,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Small Girl. Big Party. Author of the novels Boy Proof, The Queen of Cool, Beige and The Plain Janes. Former indie rocker known as Nerdy Girl and Cecil Seaskull. DIY filmmaker. enfant terrible. modern 21st century flapper.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wave your geek flag high, May 14, 2006

By 

Alan Gratz "Author" (Western North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boy Proof (Hardcover)

Here, finally, is a book for weird and nerdy girls: girls who like sci-fi, cut their hair short, and take pride in their intelligence and academic success. Protagonist Victoria - who calls herself "Egg" after a Matrix-like movie character - is just a little too weird though, pushing away even those she might actually call friends. Where some weird girls wave geek flags, Egg weilds a geek lightsaber.

Enter the cool-as-hell new boy at school. He's artsy, smart, well-connected, and wears a Hellblazer t-shirt. He speaks truth, draws insightful editorial cartoons, studies his fellow students, and makes Egg oddly jealous when he starts dating a cuter, less-nerdy girl. How has she let someone - and a boy of all things - get under her skin?

As Yoda once said, "Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering," and sure enough, Egg's angst manages to repel the very last of the people who care about her. And just as Victoria, nee Egg, begins to seek their companionship, too. It all resolves rather nicely, though: in a book about accepting your inner geek, it's nice that the conclusion doesn't involve Egg capitulating - just compromising. A little.

Boy Proof is good stuff, and sure to be enjoyed by girls who don't have a pink shirt in their closet - unless it's a pink Mrs. Picard shirt from FeNerd.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book You Won't Stop Thinking About., March 16, 2005

By 

Mette Ivie Harrison (Layton, UT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boy Proof (Hardcover)

I just finished Boy Proof. It was such fun to read and I have to say I was impressed at the ending. I found myself thinking a lot about someone I knew in high school at the beginning of the story, and then more and more about myself and about high school in general and how people try or refuse to try to fit in. I also liked that Victoria, too, needed to find herself. I liked that her parents were nice people, neither of them villains. It seems like that happens a lot in fiction these days. And Max's comment about finding it easy to make friends, but not necessarily keep them was very intriguing. He was such a great character! So alive that I can't forget about him even now that the book is closed.

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshingly unique and unforgettable character, April 12, 2007

By 

Jennifer Robinson "Editor of Jen Robinson's B... (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boy Proof (Paperback)

Boy Proof is the story of high school senior Victoria Jurgen, who prefers to be called "Egg." Victoria/Egg is an unabashed geek, and self-selected social outcast. She dresses in a long white cloak and shaves her head, in homage to her favorite movie character, Egg from the science fiction adventure Terminal Earth. She sits by herself at lunchtime and reads. Her only school participation is in the Science Fiction club and as the photographer for the school paper. She's very bright, and accustomed to doing well in school, with a particular interest in World History, but she's not very good with people.

Egg considers herself "Boy Proof". She deliberately makes herself unattractive, wearing baggy clothing and no make-up, and genuinely believes herself to be invisible. Imagine her surprise when a new student, the handsome and popular Max Carter, starts to pay attention to her. She resists his friendship, but is eventually drawn in by the things that they have in common. The two soon share a bond, but things are complicated by Max's decision to date another, more conventional, girl.

I love Egg. She's smart, talented, and funny, but she's also insecure, and sometimes downright mean to other people. I cringed for her at times, and wanted to scold her at others (she's particularly harsh to a perfectly nice girl from the Science Fiction club who just wants to be her friend, and to her mother). But through it all, I identified with her, and wanted her to succeed.

Egg is refreshingly unique, and impossible to forget. I especially like the fact that she's not conventional, and not afraid to go her own way, despite the pressures of high school. I think that anyone who has ever felt that sense of otherness while in school will be able to relate to Egg on one level or another. I was sorry to see the book end, because I would have liked to spend more time with Egg (though Castellucci certainly wraps things up in a satisfying manner). Highly recommended for kids 13 and up, especially girls and/or sci-fi buffs.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on April 11, 2007.