We can attribute some of this to an unreliable, young, and emotional narrator. There’s no mention of the criminal aspect of what happened, or the affect it might have had on Dub. That she, at 16, was sexually assaulted by a teacher, and that she really isn’t to blame here. There is no discussion at all in the book that Dub was basically the victim of statutory rape.
Like, Steve gets mad at Dub, they break up, he never speaks to her again, and he’s so so hurt by this betrayal that he runs away to live with his mother and takes up drugs. And somehow, this is portrayed as Dub’s fault. Here’s the real kicker:ĭub, his girlfriend, was cheating on him with a teacher. It all falls on the ladies.īut even that it pretty easy to overlook. But that there is no male infidelity in the book. However, it still has some problematic elements.įirst is that we find out that both his sophomore year girlfriend, Dub, AND his mother had cheated, causing both his and his father’s relationships to fail. It is a coming of age story for a boy though, told in first person narration, and there are always limitations with that. We get several female characters, all who are given well rounded personalities. The writing and characters are compelling, the jokes are smart, and it does a good job of capturing what it feels like to be an obnoxiously iconoclast teen.įor the most part, this book does…fine on a feminist read with one rather glaring exception. He’s got a shit home life, divorced parents, and a relationship with this girl, Dub, that we know won’t end well. It follows the story of highschool senior Steve York as he makes it through his senior year, and reflects back on his Sophmore year. It reminded me in a lot of ways of Looking for Alaska, by John Green, so if you enjoyed that book a lot, try this one out. I finished it the other day, and though I’d try to break it down.
This is another book that I’m having my 9th graders read during their SSR time.
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