Freewill [Turtleback]

Chris Lynch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2002

Chris Lynch has long been one of the most stylistically daring of young adult novelists, and in "Freewill", his innovative use of language and form redefines the possibilities of the genre. A story told in the second person, the voice is in the mind of Will, a boy who is living in a bewildered state following the deaths of his father and stepmother. The events of the story are dimly seen through the haze of interior dialogue brilliantly giving literary form to a young man's depression and subsequent healing. Urgent, passionate and utterly gripping, this novel of loss and bereavement, friendship and redemption is a novel as unusual and compelling as anything written for young adults for many years. The winner of the US Prinz Award and the recipient of numerous brilliant reviews in the US, "Freewill" will captivate and enchant readers with its brilliantly told story.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Chris Lynch has long been one of the most stylistically daring of teen novelists, and in Freewill, his innovative use of language redefines the possibilities of the genre. Strikingly, the story is told in second person. The voice is in the mind of Will, a boy who is moving in stunned bewilderment through a life leeched of meaning by the death of his father and stepmother in what may have been a suicide and murder. This speaker (who is not Will) constantly admonishes, challenges, and questions reality in clipped, enigmatic sentence fragments, and Will only occasionally answers back. The events of the story are dimly seen through this distorting haze of interior dialogue (as the events of Lynch's Gold Dust were seen through the protagonist's obsession with baseball).

Will, in a therapeutic woodworking class at "Hopeless High," has moved beyond furniture and garden gnomes to strange pole sculptures. There he is disconnected from reality and other people, except for occasional brief encounters with a tall black runner named Angela, who remains sarcastic and deliberately distant. When a girl from the school drowns in what is perhaps a suicide, a floral tribute accumulates around the death spot, with one of Will's sculptures as the centerpiece. A second possible suicide, and then two more are all marked with the strange poles, and a cult begins to grow around Will as the "carrier pigeon of death." A reporter forces him to see the connection between the sculptures and his father's ambivalent end, and Will begins to sink into total oblivion, saved, finally, when Angela and his grandparents reach out in "freewill," in this very dark, very odd, but riveting novel. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Will, a 17-year-old enrolled in a vocational woodworking class, falls under suspicion when his wood sculptures are found near the site of several teens' mysterious drownings or suicides. According to PW, this novel, narrated by Will in the second person, "focuses on the dark and murky corners of its main character's psyche." Ages 13-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Turtleback
• Publisher: Demco Media (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0606254803
• ISBN-13: 978-0606254809
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars confusing like cap'n jazz, November 16, 2001

By 

Mindy (St. Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freewill (Hardcover)

This book is confusing. You may shake your head more than once throughout as you wonder what you may have missed. But, unlike the only other review that is currently posted, I intend to say positive things about the book.

1. Will's descriptions of what it feels like to be an outcast are wonderful. I speak to you as someone who was formerly known as invisiblegirl, so I know what Will was saying. And the way he said it, it was beyond merely true. True isn't a strong enough word. I felt what Will was saying when he said, "People are nearby, in front of your face or working shoulder to shoulder or whatever it is, but they are never ever really with you, are they? Nearby, that's the best they can ever be."

2. The book moves quickly which may feed to the confusion, but the story has a slow feel to it. You are inside Will's mind, the mind of a disturbed young man. There is a certain slowness that comes across in Will's thoughts that counteracts the fast pace of the book. The result is that the reader is able to get to know Will through the inner dialogue, his voices if you will. I feel that this "experiment" of the second person was well done. It accomplished what it set out to do, in my mind anyway.

3. This isn't your standard book, but it is worth the read if you choose not to be put off by the fact that the events of the novel are not really all that important. It may sound like they are when you're describing to book: 'a series of teen suicides leaves a young man wondering if he caused their deaths unknowingly.' Sounds like some kinds of a psychological thriller, doesn't it? It isn't. It is psychological all right, but not a thriller by any means. This book is an opportunity to really get inside a characters head, in a way that few other books allow.

I suggest you read it and decide how well you know yourself.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The inside scoop on FREEWILL, October 31, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Freewill (Paperback)

Brianna October 31, 2002

Freewill By: Chris Lynch ISBN: 0-06-028117-4

"Are you listening? No, LISTEN. Down at the pond last night. Sombody was killed." In this realistic fiction, Will wants to be a pilot, but ended up in wood shop. He makes beautiful things. All of a sudden, he starts making wooden carvings. When a bunch of teen deaths happen and he is blamed he starts to investigate uncovering secrets that nobody wants to know.

Freewill was a definite page-turner that you won't be able to put down. It touches on aspects in life that almost every teenager goes through. This type of book could almost be classified as a murder mystery. It definitly keeps you on the edge of your seat. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes murderous, scary stories and is above the age of 13. I say that because there are a lot of swearing in this book and the style of writing (second person) is a little bit difficult to understand. For example. "How does it feel? Is the job done? Did you kill it, him, us? It is gone, Will? Is it better? Is it worse? Is it finished, or is it the beginning?
Who did you hit? What did you hit? Did it hurt? Who did it hurt?" Now you might think that this is someone talking and just asking a lot of questions, but it's not. This is pretty much how the whole narration of the book is. I couldn't figure out if this was Will's inner thought's or maybe someone communicting telepathically with him or what because it uses the word 'you' when talking about Will. But other than that it is a great book. It did, like I said, keep you on the edge of your seat and left you hanging at the end. So if I controlled everybody's actions I would definitly say, "Go get a copy of Freewill and read it NOW!"

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Style Overload, March 7, 2010

By 

Kenny "The write brother" (Florida) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Freewill (Paperback)

The writing grabbed my attention immediately. As the reader, we are listening in on a character who has this voice talking to him...all...of...the...time. Gripping for the first ten pages or so, but excruciating and exhausting before you get even halfway through the story. (A story which is very well hidden behind the incessant talking and questioning of "the voice.") Did I mention the exhausting part?

This is Not a quick read. Were you looking for a quick read, dear reader? Were you? Is that what you need? Things to be quick? Because that what books can be, can't they? Quick. But why call them "reads," anyway? Aren't they really books? Isn't it strange how people call things what they aren't? Can you even ponder that, reader? Is it worth pondering? Why? Why even ask? Does asking . . .

(No kidding. That's what the book is like from start to finish.)