Winger by Andrew Smith

Lynnie  

young adult, fiction

This book first came on my radar last year when it was mentioned in several "best YA literature" lists.  

I have mixed feelings about Andrew Smith's Winger. There were sections of the book that were really fantastic & others that were really not. It's an interesting story with wonderful characters and yet, at times it fell flat.

Ryan Dean West (aka Winger) was entertaining, though listening to the inner monologue of a 14-year old boy makes me very happy I was never a 14-year old boy (in this regard, it often reminded me of Josh Braff's The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green). In Smith's world, Ryan Dean is exceedingly hormonal and we hear all about it. All the time. Combine that with his fierce inferiority complex there's a lot about Ryan Dean that's hard to embrace. However as often as he's inappropriate, he's also endearing in a lot of ways, which is what makes him a compelling character. The supporting characters are also interesting and I often felt that I wanted to hear more about them.

My biggest complaint about the book is that at the end, it takes an odd dramatic turn. For a book that had been light-hearted and funny, this felt out of place particularly as an ending. I've read some people were surprised by this ending and I don't really see how as they spent pages and pages leading up to it, & preparing the reader for it (which also made it lose some of its impact for me).

Over all though, I enjoyed spending time with these characters and I thought about them well after the book ended.