This book was fantastic.

I read this book in a single sitting, and although at first I was not certain that I was going to read it, within the first thirty pages I was hooked. The book fails to fall to the conventions that young adult books tend to (normalization of strange characters or over emphasizing the importance of strangeness.) The books tone tends towards teh realistic and characters are made to account for their faults. It is good to be unique, but it is unrealistic to expect people to bend over backwards in awe of your uniqueness. It is good to be normal, but not to be conventional. Boy Proof makes a good argument for being true to yourself and not the obsessions you fall for.

I loved it. ( )

Read this a couple years ago, before I started tracking my reads in Goodreads, but was recently reminded of how much I loved it. Will try to re-read and post more coherent thoughts. ( )

Nothing special at all. And in fact, kinda boring. It's just a series of things that happened and the title makes it sound more interesting than it is. She's not boy proof, she's just an anti-social asshole. She's Miss Independent until some cute guy transfers schools. Of course.

But this takes place in Hollywood, so Miss Independent has the added weirdness of mimicking a girl from a Matrix pastiche, so much so that she dresses like her and wants to be called by that character's name (which is "Egg"). And this character is described as looking kinda like Ilia from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture".

She's a witch for no reason. And combine this with the weirdness of living with a mother who's an old sci-fi starlet and a dad who works in special f/x makeup. I learned more about growing up in Tinseltown than anything else. That includes the character and her motivations.

And her change comes unprovoked. It feels like a forced idea that has nothing to do with the title concept. And it's missing any sense of style. This just has an unlikeable character being unlikeable. I would have rather heard the story of a likable girl with those kind of parents doing a Hollywood movie thing. ( )

:) ( )

I read it in about 4 hours. So good. But I pushed it up to five stars because I really identified with the main character so much. And I like Castellucci's voice, I feel it's very honest and real to life. The story isn't spectular but it's set in a very realized world that's as interesting as the main character. ( )