From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–On good days, Fanboy is invisible to the students at his high school. On bad ones, he's a target for bullying and violence. When a classmate is cruel to him, Fanboy adds him to The List and moves on. His only real friend, Cal, is a jock who can't be seen with him in public. Their love of comics, though, keeps them close friends outside of school. Reading comics and writing his own graphic novel,
Schemata, are the only things that keep him sane. He dreams of showing his work to a famous author at a comic-book convention and being discovered as the next great graphic novelist. When Goth Girl Kyra IMs him with photos of him being beaten up, he's skeptical. Why does she care what happens to him? He learns, though, that she's as much an outsider as he is. The two form a tentative friendship based on hatred of their classmates, particularly jocks, and her interest in
Schemata. Fanboy is a rule follower, but Kyra is a rebel with a foul mouth. She teaches him to stand up for himself, and gives him the confidence to do it. Lyga looks at how teens are pushed to their limits by society. Though he toys with such concepts as teen suicide and Columbine-like violence, the novel never turns tragic. His love of comics carries over into all three teen characters, breathing animation into a potentially sad but often funny story. This is a great bridge book for teens who already like graphic novels.
–Stephanie L. Petruso, Anne Arundel County Public Library, Odenton, MD Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From AudioFile
Comic book readers will get all the inside jokes, asides, and allusions in this novel. Everyone else will love it, too. Lyga, a lifelong comic fan, put all his arcane knowledge to work in a story about a geeky high school student out to impress his hero, comic book writer Brian Bendis, with his own creation. He's aided (sometimes) by a quirky and borderline psychotic girl from school, nicknamed "Goth Girl" for her fashion tendencies. Scott Brick does his usual zealous performance but sounds too old for most of the parts. No matter how talented he may be, Brick can't sound like a 16-year-old comic geek. A younger reader would be more convincing. M.S. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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