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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hero, maybe?, September 22, 2008
This review is from: Hero-Type (Hardcover)
Kevin Ross, Kross to his friends, is all over the news these days. It started when he saved Leah Muldoon, his secret crush of two years, from a serial rapist and murderer. Kross plays it cool by telling everyone he was just in the right place at the right time, but everyone in Brookdale is so proud of him. Signs all over town rave about his courage. The mayor has given him both the key to the city and a sweet deal on his first car, complete with two Support Our Troops magnetic ribbons. And that's when it all falls apart. Kevin's Dad, a former military man himself, tells Kevin to get rid of the ribbons, but unfortunately a photographer catches Kevin throwing the ribbons away. Kross is still getting lots of media attention, but this time it's not for being a hero.
If ever there was a literary character that deserved to go postal, it's Kevin Ross. He truly is the poster child for dysfunctional teens everywhere. For starters, when he tells people he was in the right place at the right time to save Leah, it's true, but that's because he's basically been stalking her for two years. And sure, it's his Dad who tells him to get rid of the ribbons, but Kevin is too nervous to ask his father about his own time in the military. He knows that his father's discharge from the army seems to have made him a bit mental, but he'd rather tip toe around the subject than talk to his Dad about it. Oh, and Kevin's parents are divorced because of his father's fragile mental state, and now his mother lives thousands of miles away in California with her partner, Rita, and Kevin's younger brother. Add to all of this that Kevin is kind of short and skinny, has major pizza face, has very few friends, and lives in a basement apartment cluttered with all the junk his Pop picks up along his garbage route, and a rampage would certainly not be out of the question. With so many issues swirling around Kevin's persona, Kevin could easily become the creepy guy you hope you don't have to sit by on the bus or get stuck with as a lab partner. He could easily become a serial killer himself, but Kevin is smart, funny, and about as all-American as you can get. Life in Brookdale, Maryland is not easy for Kevin, but each day he gets up, goes to school, faces his opponents, and along the way learns to accept a little help from a few friends. I'd say that's pretty heroic, wouldn't you?
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, October 19, 2008
This review is from: Hero-Type (Hardcover)
Kevin Ross, known as Kross to his friends, has been called a hero in his hometown and beyond. But can the seemingly innocent decision to remove a couple of magnetic ribbons from the back of his ugly, brown used car catapult his hero status to that of hated enemy? You bet it can!
Kevin happened to be at the right place at the wrong time for a serial killer called The Surgeon. For potential teen victim and classmate Leah, it was a case of the right place at the right time. Since saving Leah from certain death, Kevin can't look anywhere in town without seeing his name and hers linked on "thank you" signs and congratulations of all kinds. People can't seem to be able to do enough for Kevin, and they watch anxiously as he appears on TV and waits to collect a reward for his heroism.
All this praise and excitement is confusing for Kevin. He has long had a crush on Leah and relishes the attention she is now giving him; however, there are several secrets in Kevin's life that cast a shadow on all this positive attention. One secret is his father's mysterious military history in the Gulf War. Even when Kevin's mother still lived with them, the subject of his father's military service was off limits. The other secret is Kevin's own guilt for some event that actually placed him with Leah in the alley at the time of the killer's attack.
On the day Kevin pulled into the driveway with his new, used car, his father angrily demanded that the "support our troops" ribbons be removed immediately. When Kevin innocently explains that the local car dealer had slapped them on as he drove out of the used car lot, his father still insists they need to go. Unfortunately for Kevin, a news reporter still following the local hero witnesses the removal of the ribbons. This news is interpreted as "un-patriotic" behavior, and it unleashes the fury of a town proud of its patriot values.
As Kevin battles the public, who days before spoke of his heroic deed, he learns more about his parents' divorce, his mother's decision to move to California, and his father's struggles in the Gulf War. Readers can watch as Kevin learns the true meaning of patriotism and the freedoms we all take for granted. His story is especially intriguing in this time of political turmoil and tension.
Author Barry Lyga clearly demonstrates the division that can be created by different interpretations of what it means to support one's patriot beliefs.
Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lyga's worst, read Boy Toy instead, April 18, 2010
Kevin is a hero. He saved a popular girl, Leah, from getting raped and murdered, and if that wasn't good enough, the person he saved her from is a serial killer. So, Kevin went from a fool that tried to not really get noticed to the center of attention. In school, everyone wants to be his friend and sit next to him. He is even given a pretty good deal on a car from the mayor of the town, who also owns the car dealership. Only, Kevin doesn't feel like a hero. Actually, he is keeping a secret that makes him feel worse every time his heroism is brought up. To make matters worse, a local reporter catches him throwing away two magnetic patriotic ribbons off of the back of his car when Kevin's father tells him to. This reporter turns Kevin into a villain. Kevin is all of a sudden everyone's enemy because they believe that he is not patriotic. Instead of coming clean and just saying that his dad made him do it, Kevin takes hold of this new image and brings about a debate about free speech. Not only does Kevin have to deal with this new villain treatment, but he also has to deal with the secret that he is keeping, and his mom wants him to move to California away from his dad.
I usually like Barry Lyga, but I just did not get into this book. There were too many issues that were happening at one time and I don't believe that any of them were written well enough for me to grip onto and struggle through with the main character. Lyga may have shared what was going on, but it was not done in a way that I cared about. I think part of the problem is that I just never really cared about Kevin. I could relate to him from time to time, but he wasn't a character that I liked. The challenges that Kevin goes through in order to find his identity and what is important to him are not gripping. The secret that he struggles with is easy to figure out within a few pages of the story and it probably turns me off to the character as a whole. All in all, I really think that Lyga was trying to do too much with this novel and because of that he barely scratches the surface of each topic making this book shallow and not worth the extended amount of time it took me to read it.
I gave it a 2/5 stars. I finished it and it was written by a great author, but I don't recommend it and I would not read it again.
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