Niki's Reviews > The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

(Added an edit at the end of the review)
I usually wait a little before reviewing books, but the review of this one will have to happen now, while it's still fresh in my head.

This book doesn't suck exactly, but... it's not good. Let me count the ways:

Many of the other reviews I checked out mention the title, and how there's no "Astonishing Adventures!!" in the book at all. That is true, and that particular wording is in the title to draw people in, and it definitely worked with me. How could I not be drawn in when one of the characters is -supposedly- a goth?

So imagine my disappointment when I realized that Kyra isn't really a goth, but a stereotype of one instead, by a person who has no actual idea about the goth subculture. The stereotype is the usual "Angry at the world!! Jaded by nothing in particular!! Not like the other girls!! ~Damaged~!!" Mr. Lyga, you dropped the ball here. Do you even know anything about goths, other than the fact that we generally all like "The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman?

But hey, after all Kyra isn't supposed to be an actual character; she's the "muse" (the word is literally used to describe her at one point) for our main character Donnie, she's not supposed to have a character arc or anything. Just be reckless and lash out at any given opportunity, because she's ~damaged~ and ~rebellious~. What exactly is she rebelling against? Actually nothing.

Donnie, our lovely main character (NOT), is a pretentious, whiny, entitled kid. His character is easy to figure out from the very first pages, in which he sees his crush, Dina, as a piece of meat and not a person, and then proceeds to describe how he regularly looks up the skirt of his classmate; that chapter is actually titled "The Panty Algorithm"

Let's talk about the elephant in the room first: the sexism. I'm not exactly sure what the hell the writer wanted to achieve here. On the one hand, Donnie is a raging sexist, but on the other, Kyra is not and tries to correct him, to no avail, really. So is Barry Lyga a sexist as well, or was he trying to be "realstic" when writing a teenage boy or something? In any case, there shouldn't have been sexism at all. Why did I have to endure Kyra showing her boobs at random times? What was the point, except to tittilate (pun intended) Donnie, who was the center of the universe in the book, apparently? Why the descriptions of a 15-year-old's panties????? Why?? I need answers!

Also, the good old "our geeky and awkward protagonist has a heartfelt conversation with the popular girl he likes, he sees she's ~smarter than she seems~ (because he was so sexist that he never even considered her personality, only her body), she mentions that she has heard of him somehow, then they kiss, and then they part ways, our protagonist having learned a powerful lesson" cliche.

So yeah, I didn't like Donnie. Kyra was treated like a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a ~not like the other Manic Pixie Dream Girls~ version, and the book is just a typical, YA teenage angst book. No "astonishing adventures" here, no "Fanboy and Goth Girl" when it's mostly Fanboy whining, them fighting whenever they're together, and Kyra being a Goth stereotype just for the plot to have her be ~edgy~ To borrow some Lemony Snicket language, "edgy" here means "a public nuisance" with her reckless driving and random lashing out at anything and everything.

I'm giving the book 2 stars, because 1 star ratings are reserved for books that I never even finished. This one I did, but I really can't ignore these glaring faults. There's also a sequel, which sounds even ~edgier~ just by the blurb. I don't think I'll read it. I saw in the reviews that there's even a lesbian subplot, which is very clearly to make the male teenage readers all hot and bothered. Nope.

EDIT: I cannot BELIEVE I forgot to comment on something I said in one of my updates. One of the characters, an otherwise likeable and rather mature one, Cal, has the username "IamaChildMolester" online, which is described as "his sick sense of humor at work" Here is a tip, writers: child molestation is N O T something to joke about. I don't care that your character is an "immature teenager" This is NOT a joke. I shouldn't even have to say this.