Review Detail

Set in the early 1990’s, this book is strongly reminiscent of The Wonder Years—but lacking the more hopeful undertones and genuine nostalgia.

The epistolary narrative style carries the unfortunate problem of limited or non-existent setting and physical descriptions, as readers are relegated to the pinhole perspective of the main character and sole POV, Charlie. (If not for the existence of the movie adaptation, this reader would have little to go on by way of imagery.) As Charlie puts his thoughts into letter form, it quickly becomes apparent that he is neurologically atypical. Everything about his characterization screams Asperger’s autism, but as the story takes place a decade before the spectrum became more widely recognized, readers are left to wonder over the actual cause of his social impairments.

Charlie is a generally sympathetic character who sometimes borders on pitiable. He’s a 15-year-old supposedly “gifted” freshman who has great difficulty connecting with people. (I say ‘supposedly’ because his written voice sounds more like a semi-organized 11 or 12-year-old, at about the same maturity level.) Charlie happens to fall into the good graces of a pack of party-crowd hipster seniors, who take him under their tattered and broadminded wings. Each of them is a questionably functional mess in their own way, and they are happy to draw the painfully naive Charlie into their version of reality.

Ultimately this isn't just an "issues" book, this is the kitchen sink of issues books.

I can't recall seeing so many traumas, negative coping mechanisms, and destructive behavioral patterns crammed (somewhat casually) into one plotline. Suicide, rape, domestic abuse, child molestation, depression, abortion, bullying, vehicular death, crippling anxiety, substance abuse, repressed memories, psychological breaks, anonymous gay sex, and ...*drumroll* … incest. >.> I’m pretty sure all it lacked was a terminal ailment.

The problem isn’t so much the content itself as the handling. That is to say, none of these issues end up feeling satisfactorily addressed or explored to any meaningful extent.

As far as the writing itself goes, the characterization falls a bit flat—especially in the adults. (Although one could argue this is in part due to Charlie’s perceptions, as he’s something of an unreliable narrator.) The pacing is sedate, the dialogue is unmemorable, and there isn’t much by way of an evident goal/endgame to build anticipation.

Two vaguely redeeming qualities include the fact that Charlie is actually receiving some psychological help… And toward the end, he is finally called out for simply being present to watch one of his “friends” self-destruct while passively failing to intervene in any way. But on the whole, it’s a sizable time investment that yields too little substance for this reader to be able to recommend it in good conscience.