Reviews with content warning for Rape - Ponyboy: A Novel

"What dreams do I live with ink on page/how do I know which words and when/how do I know I'm man/except that/I do, that/I am."

I found this book to be immensely beautiful. The story was transcendent, the characters were multidimensional, and the writing was so, so gorgeous. It was poetic, even though the contents of the novel were, at times, not poetic things.

For me, the highlights of this book were the writing style, Baby's character, and the ending. I think the world needs a colab between Eliot Duncan and Ocean Vuong so we can have the ultimate piece of Sad Queer Poetic Literature. Like On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, this story shies away from nothing, leaving in the gritty details of the love, loss, and grief of a young adult. Although Ponyboy was difficult to read at times, both because of its subject matter and unique style of writing, I do not think that one bit of it was unnecessary. Ponyboy's triumph and pain and guilt and regret were so tangible. The relationships in this book were so real, whether they be with friends (like Toni and Lee), family (Mom & June) or lovers (Baby and Gabriel). My favorite was Ponyboy's relationship with Baby, who was one of my favorite characters in this book. She managed to be both supportive of Ponyboy and kind to her own self, and although I would never consider her relationship with Ponyboy to be healthy, characters like her aren't shown very often in books.

This book hovered between day dream and nightmare, feeling both euphorically beautiful and dismally depressing at certain points. It also read the way a fever dream feels, confusing and uncontrolled. Normally I'm not a huge fan of dialogue without quotation marks, but I feel like it really worked here. It was easy to feel the shift in the text as Ponyboy got more sober, and although the lack of quotation marks were originally somewhat chaotic, I found them to be more stable by the end. I also loved the autobiographical aspect of this, especially the ending.

Ponyboy is just so, so quotable. I found myself reading with a pencil in hand, underlining fragments and sentences that I found beautiful. I'll close out this review with my favorite quote:

"Futility is necessary. There are no means to my ends."

5/5 stars.

Content Warnings

maybephasing's review against another edition

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emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

alicebodnar's review against another edition

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dark hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

leollii's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

imrereads's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What a book! We follow Ponyboy as he fall further and further into substance abuse and self destruction. I love how well crafted it felt. It felt almost chaotic for a a while, dialogue running into one another, jumps in time and place in a way that felt so fitting for the drug-filled journey he was on. The pace and level of chaos is constanly in line with Ponyboy's state of being, and it worked so well. This is a book I'm looking forward to reading again.

Content Warnings

greydaze's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

earlydecember's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ponyboy delves into the eponymous character's struggles with addiction as he embraces his trans-masculine identity and navigates messy queer relationships. The book has an experimental, hybrid form that includes emails, letters, and poems written to writers, philosophers, trans people, and others.

The prose style can be disorienting since Ponyboy's narrative voice prioritizes emotion and theory over concrete description.

Especially in the first half of the narrative when Ponyboy is in the thick of his addiction and not in a clear state of mind. In the second half, Ponyboy goes to rehab but experiences a relapse. Personally, what sold me is the realistic portrayal of recovery and its setbacks, healing and its discomfort.

As a debut novel, Ponyboy shows great promise, and I am eager to see Duncan's future works. If you're a fan of queer, character-driven stories, I think you'll enjoy Ponyboy too.

Thank you to NetGalley and W.W Norton for the digital ARC.

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