Sunday, April 12, 2015

Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci Review


Boy Proof

Fiction
203 pages

What happens when an antisocial cinephile meets up with the worldly new guy at school — a quick-witted artist who's savvy enough to see through her sci-fi disguise?
Meet Egg. Her real name is Victoria Jurgen, but she's renamed herself after the kick-ass heroine of her favorite sci-fi movie, Terminal Earth. Like her namesake, Egg dresses all in white, colors her eyebrows, and shaves her head. She always knows the right answers, she's always in control, and she's far too busy — taking photos for the school paper, meeting with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, and hanging out at the creature shop with her dad, the special-effects makeup wizard — to be bothered with friends, much less members of the opposite sex. As far as Egg is concerned, she's boy proof, and she likes it that way. But then Egg meets a boy named Max, a boy who's smart and funny and creative and cool...and happens to like Egg. Could this be the end of the world — at least as Egg knows it?


Completion: A+
Writing/Style: B+
Characters: A-
Plot/Pacing: B
World-Building/Atmosphere: A+
Sub-genres (Romance, Humor, Mystery, etc.): B-

Final Grade: A- Get Thee to a Bookstore!

Recommended by writer and vlogger John Green, Boy Proof did not disappoint. Here’s a “realistic” contemporary book I can actually get behind. Unfortunately when I was younger, I had the wrong impression of contemporaries and thought they were all full of that fake soap opera drama and petty popular conflicts. The only books that I read that took place in real life were stories that seemed so out-worldly, so insane, I couldn’t believe they were real at all: serial killers, conversion camp, the Holocaust. It wasn’t until my later years of high school that I found the Vlogbrothers and John Green’s YA books. His books aren’t perfect, but, for me, they introduced me to the possibilities of YA contemporaries: funny characters, touching moments, and quick reads. So, with a few of his books under my belt, I tried to open myself up to contemporaries more, and when John Green recommended a few books on his Youtube video, including this one, I decided to give it a try.
Much like a John Green book, Castellucci blends a perfect mix of YA romance and humor. The style ain’t fancy, but it is easy to get through. The story’s biggest strength is its main character: I am so happy to finally see a main character with a strong personality. Egg is flawed, creative, and unabashedly strong. Egg truly felt like a real teenager who was stubborn but not stupid, relatable but not a bland stereotype. Egg’s father makes costumes and costume makeup which makes Egg’s quirk of dressing up like her favorite sci-fi heroine everyday actually believable. This story is all about the characters and as such the plot is more intimately centered on Egg’s internal growth rather any elaborate or fancy external plot points. Castellucci takes full advantage of her setting to add depth to her characters rather than for cheap flare. She only lightly touches on the high school atmosphere which keeps it from being cliche and stale, and her version of Hollywood is far from shallow and is able to capture the possibilities of a place so strongly founded in the arts. The romance was pretty obvious from the beginning, but still enjoyable. Both characters had to work on their relationship, make mistakes, and finally communicate at the end. At times I was a little worried with where the romance was going and how strong it was going to get, but it eventually won me over in the end. The book was a quick read, and I would recommend it to contemporary readers and non-contemporary readers alike.

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