Customer Reviews

Fly on the Wall

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sixteen-year old Gretchen Yee is a pretty typical teenager. Sort of. She attends the Manhattan High School for the Arts, otherwise known as Ma-Ha. There, she gets to take not only the normal, everyday classes of Literature and PE, but also Drawing and Sculpture. Gretchen is a great artist, and she's especially partial to the comic-book style of drawing. Not to mention that her personal hero is Spiderman. She has a best friend name Katya, who now seems to spend all her time either hanging out with the poseurs behind the school, smoking cigarettes, or babysitting her three younger sisters.

When it comes to the opposite sex, though, Gretchen has no idea what she's doing. Actually, she doesn't even know what they're doing half the time. Her parents are in the throes of a divorce, she has no close male friends, and her kind-of ex-boyfriend, Shane, now spends most of his time acting like an idiot. How can she ever know what goes on inside a guy's head when they act like such total morons most of the time?

After casually mentioning one day after school that she wished she could be a fly on the wall in the boy's locker room, something really, really strange happens. Gretchen wakes up the next morning as, you guessed it, a fly on the wall of the boy's locker room. Never mind the fact that she can't wrap her mind (her own mind, thank goodness, not a fly mind) around what's happened, now she spends several hours every day seeing high-school guys get naked! In front of her! Without clothes! And she can't close her eyes because her fly-body has no eyelids!

Needless to say, the things Gretchen sees and hears inside the boy's locker room at Ma-Ha are (ha!ha!) eye-opening, to say the least. Who knew that Titus, the object of her undying affections, gets tired of hearing his friends talk bad about homosexuals? Or that Malachy, a guy she'd never paid much attention to before, has secretly been dating her best friend? Or that one of the Art Poseurs is [..] Or that she'd spent so much time wondering if she was invisible, all the time being crushed on by a guy she'd never seen before?

FLY ON THE WALL is funny, honest, and a totally fun read. Who wouldn't wish, just once, to have a fly's-eye-view of the inner sanctum of the teenage male? For Gretchen, her time as a fly teaches her a lot about not only the male species, but her own wishes, desires, and needs. A real winner!

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

I confess to skimming much of the inner monologue portions, but got the gist. Life-like, reality-driven characters and plot. As absurd as it sounds, the book really began to grip me when the fly transformation occurred. Pick it up. It'll only take an hour or two to read, and it'll put a smile on your face.

I am a huge fan of E. Lockharts, but I have to admit, at first I couldn't quite get into this book. Maybe because of its artsy-ish tone - the heroine Gretchen Yee is a student at the Manhattan Art School, so everything about her (and for that matter everybody in the school) is art orientated and I can't quite identify with imaginative and artistic types. Maybe because of a bizarre twist in the middle, when the story becomes somewhat fantasy-like - Gretchen finds that her wish of becoming a fly on the wall a boys locker room, quite literally comes true.

However the story really takes off (at least in my opinion) when we start learning about the world of male relationships, insecurities, secrets - the world which is a mystery to me up to this day. From then on the book is very hard to put down.

The major themes of all Lockhart's creations - facing difficulties instead of hiding from them, taking charge of ones life, and women empowerment - are very present in this book and delivered very well.

Another great book by E. Lockhart. Not the best written by her, but still worth your attention.

P.S. For those parents who monitor their kids' reading, this book has some mature content - male "attributes" are discussed quite openly, but without being inappropriate in my opinion.

I thought fly on the wall was a fun romp. It was a clever twist to take a introverted, heady character and make manifest the sorts of fantasies that teens have. Gretchen, being a loner in a school of weirdos definitely makes it hard for someone who feels they are on the outside to not identify with her. I liked how Lockhart focused on the inner monologue of the character, showing the constant list of running thoughts. It's easy to identify with the misunderstood, frightened, insecure Gretchen, allowing you to go on the short, strange trip of one week in a boy's locker room.

It's a fun piece of fantasy. But the events it describes feel pretty real. The cruelty, teasing, and vulnerability among the male characters all rang true for me. It's a sweet quick read. I don't know If it will transform girls' lives, but it will make them more secure that boys are human just like them--and that honest sharing is the best route to happiness.

At Manhattan School for the Arts everyone is edgy, unique, and brooding. Unfortunately, comic-lover Gretchen Lee believes she is only the latter. In a battle to differentiate herself in a school of unique individuals, she dyes her hair an outrageous red, but still falls short of being noticeable to boys in what she considers a school of outcasts. This all changes when she transforms into a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room.

As with many young adult novels aimed towards girls, Gretchen feels that she will be emotionally and socially fulfilled upon finding a boyfriend. Although Lockhart subscribes to this notion to a certain extent, she is careful to portray Gretchen as a strong, independent, and funny character without the support of a male. When she first turns into a fly she considers her situation, "I'll never get a boyfriend looking like this. Oh hell, that is the stupidest thing to think. I cannot believe I just thought that." Of course, the hilarity of the situation is nested within readers' acknowledgment that they too foster insecurities that may escape as inappropriate vanity or general absurdity at the wrong moments.

In a scenario many teenage girls would dream for, readers are permitted to take place in a voyeuristic adventure inside the boys' locker room to gain insight on everything teenage girls talk about, but never get to read about such as (ah-hem) penises or as Gretchen refers to them, "gherkins". By flipping the stereotypical male gaze that evaluates females onto males through Gretchen's gaze, Lockhart actually subverts traditional gender roles, allowing Gretchen to honestly and humorously describe newly acknowledged concepts of lust.

Fly on the Wall brings issues that New York City students face into a realistic light without being cheesy. Serious topics such as divorce, gay parents and the struggle to be different in a city where individuality is valued are all considered in a straightforward manner that never imitates the language of Hallmark cards.

Length:: 0:47 Mins

Lockhart brings an interesting concept into YA literature through the character of Gretchen, a high school sophomore who has a best friend and a crush, Titus. Gretchen struggles with the opposite sex and makes a random comment, "I wish I could be a fly on the wall in the locker room." Little does she know that that singular comment will change her life, forever.

Loved this book! The reader really brought out the character of Gretchen and enhanced Lockhart's plot.

This book was hilarious. The protagonist, Gretchen Yee tells the story in a comical and often endearingly cynical voice. The characters in this book are relatable, and we end up rooting for them to succeed. It's so funny and cute at the same time. I read it in one sitting. And at the end, I found myself looking for my own, 'Titus, titus, titus.' in my own life. Read it! Awesome book. :)

I read this book in one sitting, and while that doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment due to its length, I rarely have the attention span to read for more than a hundred pages at a time, and this book sucked me in like I haven't been sucked in in a while. I read quite a bit of young adult literature, but most of the time everything is the same: the character is somewhat of an outcast, there are popular people who torture her, she stares longingly at a guy who has never noticed her but is really intellectual, blah blah blah. Fly on the Wall contains only one of those elements, and it is only in passing. Gretchen is not taken over by her awkwardness and she usually isn't that concerned by it. She is one of the most real characters that I've read about in a long time, one who I can relate to but has personality quirks of her own.

In Fly on the Wall, Lockhart takes a hokey premise and turns it into an epiphany. Teenagers will never have this chance, but they can learn from the lessons that Gretchen learns. Don't get me wrong - Fly on the Wall is far from just a tale about liking who we are, being comfortable with our own skin as well as the opposite sex. It is smart and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny; there was a line near the middle that I was laughing at for a few minutes straight. And for once, the main character doesn't take FOREVER to realize things, and she isn't stupid. I think that's what made me enjoy this book the most.

(also, the review is meant to be 5 stars, but for some reason Amazon won't let me do that.)

Once I began reading Fly on the Wall, I could not abandon it. As someone, who spent her teenage years exploring Manhattan, enduring a parents' divorce and applying to Art School for college I could really identify with the protagonist of this novel. I enjoyed reading about Gretchen's boyish obsession with Spiderman and comic books. As the product of an interracial marriage and a female teenager with low self-esteem Gretchen is truly set out to discover her self-identity.
As I continued reading Fly on the Wall I was shocked at the twist of Gretchen literally transforming into a fly. My first reaction was that this was very strange and for about thirty seconds I considered abandoning the book. But no, Gretchen had me hooked and I was interested to see what she would discover as a fly.
After spending a week on the wall of the boys locker room, Gretchen learns a lot about the opposite sex and many gender issues are revealed to her. She also seems to develop a renewed sense of her own female identity in juxtaposition to her week-long study of male identity. She seems to cross the threshold that separates male and female and realizes that maybe boys are not so foreign as she originally thought.