Customer Reviews

Project X: A Novel

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

In the few years since the Columbine massacre, there have been a slew of novels (including the 2003 Booker Prize winner, Vernon God Little) attempting to understand what triggers such horrifying acts. Shepard's is the first of these I've read, and it's hard to imagine a superior version existing. This story of two boys plotting revenge on a school that has shunned them is a nuanced and subtle work that perfectly captures the speech and emotions of its protagonists while shying away from offering easy answers. Edwin and his only friend, Flake, are not metal/goth listening, animal torturing, trench coat-wearing, video-game junkie, grumpy teens. Teetering between adolescence and teenagerdom, they are the perpetual targets, not ultra geeky or ultra feeble or ultra nerdy, just enough of each to make them a pair of misfits worth picking on.

Told from Edwin's perspective, the novel depicts junior high as an endless series of insults and defeats, sometimes culminating in a bloody beating. Adding insult to injury, teachers never give Edwin the benefit of the doubt. This has led many reviews to write that the teachers pick on him or dislike him, which is actually not true. It would be very easy to portray the teachers as monsters from Edwin's viewpoint, but in fact, the teachers are often shown reaching out and making at least clumsy attempts to try and understand what his problems are. But because he is sometimes in the wrong, and can often be sarcastic or disrespectful, it's also easy to see why he is sometimes unjustly punished. And this is part of the complexity of the novel that makes it work-the teachers' actions do contribute to Edwin's misery, but not by design.

Similarly, Edwin's home life is hardly the dysfunctional den of horrors one might expect. His father is around, if distracted much of the time, but his mother is very aware that he is troubled, and frets about it a great deal. And there's Gus, his four-year-old brother, whom he clearly loves a great deal. Edwin's parents make repeated attempts to try and get him to open up and talk about what's bothering him, but he just can't get out of his shell. His mother manages to empathize with his emotional pain, mouthing the perfect words, but all her best efforts just never quite penetrate. Again, the complexity lies in the reality that the family is very typical, the parents don't do anything wrong, and yet Edwin sees shooting his classmates as a viable action. Interestingly, Shepard shows Edwin as suffering from sever reoccurring headaches and severe insomnia, which may speak to a physical or chemical disorder that might explain much else. Of course, these may also be stress or anxiety induced, but either explanation goes a long way toward explaining why he seems to sleepwalk through life.

As the book progresses, Edwin and Flake wallow deeper in their misery, humiliation, and ambivalent hatred, while remaining relatively sympathetic and amusing characters. As a counterpoint, their social prospects actually seem to improve slightly even as X-Day approaches. One sees rays of hope as a girl flirts with Edwin and his art project is enthusiastically lauded. Their plans for revenge are so desultory that one prays that they'll be abandoned as too much trouble, but in the end, Edwin's actions are precisely what we expect them to be. So what is the ultimate message? Shepard's novel seems to be delivering the disheartening message that even essentially good kids can be turned into powder kegs, and given the ease of access to guns in this country, we shouldn't be surprised when tragedies such as Columbine occur.

Why do adults lose their capacity to see reality especially from a kid's perspective? Jim Shepard does not lose this capacity in anyway during Project X. This book captures what kids think but 99.9% of them do not do. Of course tortured kids think these things when being bullied by insane selfish Kings or Queens of the school, how simple life would be without these type of people. But you have to keep in mind that this type of bullying is what makes a lot of great people great. What is crueler what Edwin and Flake do or what others do to them that drives them to it? Not for innocent or closed minded people who think the earth is a great rosy place. This book is reality. Jennifer, a 27 year old kid.

Shepard's novel is more frightening in its depiction of the normal, every day life of two terribly alienated teens, rather than its depiction of a Columbinelike school massacre. Yes, we know going into the book that the two main characters are sliding inevitably toward a school shooting. But what truly captures our attention is their listless, violent lives and their failed attempts to either connect with peers or even see any hopes of ever doing so. We see painful glimpses of what the narrator's life could be if he could simply pull himself out of his downward spiral - he does well in an art project and in English class. Yet the constant bullying, and his own angry reaction to it are making him a virtual puppet for his less-worthy and far more dangerous best friend, Flake. The novel simply cannot be put down, and is best read on a dark night while you're lying alone on the sofa. Shepard gets into the mindset of these lost characters, and his prose is haunting. Ironically, I'm saving the book for my two boys. I want them to read it when they become teens so they can see the terrible costs of alienation, and how easy it is to slip down the wrong path. Pick up Project X. You won't put it down till you're done.

Constantly tormented by their peers, and getting little or no help from their parents and teachers, Edwin and Flick feel tortured and misunderstood. Their only friends each other, they are picked on, beaten up, bullied, and stolen from. Finally, in desperation, Flick comes up with a plan to take his father's guns to school and use them- and Edwin joins him.

This book, although very mature (there is swearing on almost every page, and the subject matter itself isn't a light topic), grabs your attention immediately. It puts you into the minds of two students who decided to fight back in the only way they knew how, even if it cost them their future.

To Richie the Reviewer: Project X is not Young Adult Fiction. It is a work of literary fiction about young adults, and with all due respect, there is a big difference. After reading your review, I question whether or not you've ever been a teenager (and whether you really read this book). Is it surprising that the teenage narrator of this book continually feels misunderstood by the adults in his life? And does it really shock you that some schools have Draconian disciplinary policies? I was a junior in public high school when Columbine happened, and believe me, everything changed: Students were constantly monitored, dissent was not tolerated, suspensions and expulsions were handed out for seemingly insignificant things (junior high students who pointed their index finger like it was a gun, high school girls who carried Tylenol in their purses).

Project X takes a chance that other school shooting stories don't: It shows the two perpetrators as human-- as loving and terrified and confused children. And that, I believe, is what makes this story so compelling and ultimately rewarding.

In the aftermath of the Columbine High School Shootings in 1999, countless reporters and commentators repeated similar versions of the same phrase over and over again: "People are wondering how something like this could happen."

Jim Shepard knows.

Project X is one of the few books that has ever honestly attempted to get into the minds of people like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, or the other teenager gunmen who later patterned themselves after the Columbine incident.

Most seem to take comfort in explanations that support preexisting phobias and prejudices; violent video games and movies, popular music, poor parenting skills, drug abuse, white supremacy, and even homosexuality have often been blamed for driving these kids to violence. Project X refuses to fall into this simple-minded trap. Edwin and Flake, the two teenage characters in the book, are portrayed as the complex personalities that people really are, and not the easily categorized stereotypes that people tend to see each other as.

The protagonists in Shepard's book aren't simply misanthropic loners by choice. They are bullied and harassed on a daily basis, in and out of school, by people they know and complete strangers, and by adults as well as teenagers. The toll of this repeated physical abuse, egged on by their inability (both physically and emotionally) to fight back, forces them to withdraw from society. But they aren't presented as pure victims of an uncaring system. Their self-imposed alienation and inability to explain their situation to someone who could assist them, coupled with increasingly anti-social and reactionary behavior, just makes them easier targets and escalates the situation even further.

If this were just about bullies, the playgrounds across the country would be a never ending battlefield (and for some, it is). There are often other influences involved, and Shepard exposes some of these as well. The psychological instability of both characters is well displayed, but never left as a final scapegoat. Allusions to a previous head injury possibly causing some of Edwin's emotional problems, as well as Flake's apparent sexual confusion and sometimes aggressive domination over Edwin in their friendship, add to the pressures and overwhelming confusion. It is all too easy to forget that some kids live with stress levels that often drive adults to nervous breakdowns.

Shepard doesn't just trap these characters in a world where no one cares about them or notices the problem. Edwin's parents are well aware that their son is troubled, and try to both understand and lend emotional support. But their awkward attempts to reach out never manage to break through the confusion and despair. Their rebellious behavior makes Edwin and Flake an easy target for the scorn of teachers and other adults, but even some of them attempt to help through positive reinforcement, and enrolling Edwin in an after-school program for troubled youth.

The true brilliance of Project X is that Shepard manages to easily evoke sympathy, and even empathy, for Edwin and Flake. Most readers will no doubt find themselves not only wanting to help them, but wondering what could have been done differently. Through fictional characters and events, Shepard is giving the reader a glimpse behind the curtain that hides most of these kids until it is far too late to do anything but pick up the pieces and wonder to ourselves what went wrong?

I have read other reviews of this book, and I am surprised by two common reactions to Project X. One is the repeated comparison of Project X to Vernon God Little, which is unfair to both books. Vernon God Little is a great book in its own right, but only uses troubled youth as a foundation for its story, and in no way attempts to expose or explore the serious issues that Project X does. This is almost like comparing Gus Van Sant's Elephant to Napoleon Dynamite.

The other reaction is from those who complain about the book's ending. Some readers wanted more about the aftermath of the events at the end of the book, and felt the need for closure. I feel that these people missed the point entirely.

Project X is not about school shootings. It isn't about the victims or their families, the assailants or their families, the media coverage afterward, or the attempts by those affected to somehow pick up the shattered remains of what used to be their lives. The truth is, there is no real closure after such a tragedy.

Project X is about what happens before these tragic events. It is about the children who become lost amongst us, the demons that plague and influence them, and most importantly, what finally drives them over the edge. Jim Shepard knows the truth; the only way to save ourselves from them is to learn how to save them from themselves.

Project X is the first person narrative of Edwin, young teenager who falls below even the descriptor of misfit. The story follows the first few weeks of Edwin's eighth grade, as he copes (or doesn't) with the absolute horror of school, his helpless family and a rageful friend Flake.

I came away from this knowing I've lived a completely sheltered life and feeling sick knowing there really are kids like Edwin and Flake out there. I spent most of this book just horrified by what I was reading, and yet, the author told it all with such grace and I wanted Edwin to break out of this rotten life of his so badly that I couldn't put this book down.

I know others have been bothered by the author's tendency towards really bad grammar and language, but as the mother of a teenaged boy, I guess it was fairly easy for me to fall into the prose and not be distracted by it, since I hear that kind of stuff whenever I spend any time at his high school.

There was foreshadowing all over the place. References to Columbine, Flake going on and on about his dad's guns; it was apparent halfway through the book that the power in the Flake/Edwin relationship had flipped to Flake and that Edwin was really just hanging on. I think the frustration and the beauty of the book is that we start to see glimpses of what could be, if not the redemption, the recovery, of Edwin towards the back third of the book. We're given a tantalizing clue about the root of some of his behavior with his increasing headaches and illness (tumor? earlier referenced head injury?); he starts to reattach with his family and they seem to finally seeing that he seriously needs help; he makes some new alliances at school and teachers are making more of an effort to reach out to him.

The ending is swift, brutal and like a door slamming. You're sort of left standing in the parking lot watching the car roar away wondering, "well, now what?". The author lets you sort out in your own head who did what and how, and given what you've come to learn about Edwin, you have a few reasons to think about why he may have done something or not done it. All in all, a good author is supposed to leave you with a little taste of the book in your head to roll around and make you think, and I think this author did that, in spades.

A wonderful, albeit heartbreaking, read. It did strike me after finishing this book that it would be difficult to pin down a specific audience for this. 20-something men? Reading groups, absolutely, but apart from some niche audience, I wouldn't even know where to classify the reader the author had in mind for this, assuming he was writing to anyone and not just for himself.

In 1977 Stephen King's (writing as Richard Bachman) Rage was published. In it, we watched as Charlie Decker was harassed and beat upon before doing the unthinkable and bringing a loaded firearm to school with intent to kill. Rage was a shocking story that ventured deep into the teenage mind and in Stephen's own words is: "Now out of print, and a good thing."

Fast-forward thirty-plus years and welcome Jim Shepard's Project X.

Project X is a truly terrifying story that dares you to follow the downward spiral of two young boy's lives as they're beaten, abused, harassed, and ignored and finally crack under all the pressure that encompasses their lives. Good at heart, but confused by the animosity that surrounds them, they start down a dark path that will change their and the lives of everyone around them.

This book is not for everyone. In fact, I think some may be outraged that a book like this exists at all. The fact is, that violence in school is too real a subject to write/read about for most people and Project X puts you right smack-dab in the middle of it. He plunges you into the minds of kids who kill and in the end almost has you sympathetic for them.

While some may become immediately turned off by Jim's writing style, they story gripped me and I read all 176 pages in a single sitting. It's not that Jim's writing is bad, he just is a bit different in that instead of saying the typical like "he said" or "she said", he uses "he goes" or "she goes". Not terrible, just different and sometimes distracting.

I found myself relating a lot to Flake and Edwin as I followed them, reminded of a time when I too had felt singled out for being different and was brought to tears as Edwin states: "Nothing about me is any good. Nothing I wanted to be is left."

In the end, my heart was absolutely pounding (no really, it was) as I read the final pages leading to the story's climax and was relieved when it was all finally over. All the while reading Project X I felt like I was reading something that I shouldn't be, that by reading it I was in some way condoning what was happening. Partly because I found myself taking pity on the boys, but mostly because what I was reading was very real.

Personally, this book was a little too personal for me and stirred a lot of emotions I learned to let go of a long time ago, but it's one that I am absolutely glad to have read and encourage you to do the same.

I picked up PROJECT X based on the subject matter and could not put it down. I've read books that attempt to approximate the real language of adolescents, but this one was seamless; the author is really talented to be able to do it so flawlessly. It was very accessible, at times funny and heartbreaking, and I really wanted to see what happened.

Edwin's affection for his kid brother, and his ambivalence toward everything, was touching. So many times, he wanted to reach out, but this really shows the situation he was mired in. I read it all in one sitting and really enjoyed it. The only thing I wasn't sure I liked was the ending, but I could understand the point of it - I can live with it. To be able to pull this off, the author is clearly very talented. It was the first book of his I've read, but I'll check out the others.

I don't think it is revealing much to say that this work deals with a pair of grade eight students who are planning a school shooting. Knowing this from the beginning, the real depth of the book comes from its careful examination of the daily lives of the protagonist and his only "friend", aptly named Flake. Each tiny insult, misunderstood comment, rejected overture, failed attempt by parents and teachers alike to reach out to the kids is horrifying, since the accumulation of events is weighing so heavily on the boys and we can guess at the most likely outcome.

Anyone who remembers the confusing times of their teen years will immediately identify with what happens in this book, and while they may have emerged relatively unscathed, it is all to easy to see how a tiny minority of kids just can't deal with the confusion and pressure of "young adulthood".

While reading I kept wishing that I could just sit the kids down and say "hey, what is happening may seem soul destroying and never ending, but once you get through this phase you'll realize how little impact any of what is happening to you now will have on the rest of your life".

The author has done an excellent job of pulling you into the story and has created a book that is almost impossible to put down. Days later I still feel disturbed, but I still highly recommend the book. Should be on the reading list of all grade eight kids, accompanied by a thorough discussion afterwards.