You guys, I need more people to read this book and discuss it with me. I'm not particularly sensitive to sexism in pop culture--in fact I've gotten into arguments where I'm siding WITH the appropriateness to sometimes have a movie or book where there isn't a strong female character. It's okay to have a buddy movie! Or a movie set in a men's prison! But this book definitely rattled me. I recognize what Andrew Smith is TRYING to do here. The main character definitely grows throughout the book--he starts off simply thinking every girl is super hot (even mustachioed ones, gee thanks) but completely ignores little things like personality. By the end he realizes that he really DOES like one girl for who she is, even if he totally keeps making out with another girl. So, he's a standard 14 year old boy. I get it. I just don't think it was well executed, and it took away from the whole book for me. It had promise--the comics are well drawn and I love a good boarding school novel, but it was just a little too much. Am I getting old and lame?
Really, I am usually pretty lax about getting riled up about books like this. I LOVE Swim the Fly, which is about a group of boys spending their summer trying to see a real live naked girl. THis one though...there's just something about this one.
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