Reviews

Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada

thatfella's review

Go to review page

5.0

The writing itself wasn’t like, anything life changing, but the story and characters were just so lovely and full of so much heart. Loved it.

imstephtacular's review

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jennythenic's review

Go to review page

2.0

This book is everything that makes me (a Teen Librarian) hate about Teen Fiction. A decently developed main character and some ok supporting characters (Tony and Brad), and then the whole thing devolves into a booktok word cloud. And anything authentic about the characters’ relationships in the first third are completely gone by the halfway point. Also? Millennial authors need to set their stories in the early aughts if they don’t know how to write 2020s teens.

honeycomblibrary's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

lindseyanderson's review

Go to review page

lighthearted medium-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

2.0

librarianryan's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 
Wesley, known as big Mac to his friends, is a punk. He’s a punk on a skateboard. He’s got anger issues, rowdy friends and is struggling to find their place in the world. They also know they’re gay but is yet to come out of the closet. Around the holidays he’s forced to go see the Nutcracker with his soon to be stepsister and he can’t keep his eyes off the ballet dancer on stage. Tristan is out and proud. He spends his life dedicated to ballet but also to getting good grades, driving a Tesla, and everything Wesley is not. But opposites attract, and in this book, they attract, they clash, but they also cuddle. This book was very sweet. It’s about a teenage boy who has been told all his life by most everybody that he’s bad so he acts out as people expect. But he must find out for himself that he can beat people’s expectations. He must believe: I can do better I can be better and I want that. He also wants Tristan, which gives him some of what he needs to make the changes in his life. This book was fantastic. As an audiobook, it moves swiftly, your engaged with the story, and you really feel for Wesley. You’re cheering for him. “You can do it you can do it. You can be exactly who you want to be. You can be Better. Just say I need help.” I love this book. It’s Anthony Nerada and I will be reading whatever they write next. 

joey_the_noun's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

missmeganmann's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

It was fine. I understand the thought process, I really do, but I don’t like the pigeonholing and stereotyping. You can be whoever you want to be and then also date whoever you want to. There aren’t rules like we think there are. So, maybe that sort of rubbed me the wrong way about this. Instead of opening up, he continually just wrote people off and didn’t even give them a chance. I don’t think that’s fair and I know teens are selfish, but when you’re 18, you’re not THAT bad. 

I don’t know. It wasn’t my favorite. But I DID love the Sk8er Boi reference at the end. That made me laugh.

transparent_tea's review

Go to review page

emotional inspiring sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The way the author talks about the reason on why he wrote this novel is touching, granted I never really listened to songs growing up (except anything from the DDR soundtrack and Eurobeat).

The story starts with the main character, Wesley "Big Mac" Mackenzie, about to punk some kid because he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We start to see that Wes is one of those "punks" you may recall back in high school who was "walking on the bad side of the tracks". Once he follows through with one of his holiday traditions, going to see the Nutcracker, something changes and the readers start to see layers behind the bad boy image.

As the story progresses, one sees the slow transformation of Wes, trying to better himself, but also seeing parts of his past bubble up. As the story gets closer to the end, it looks like all of Wes' doubts and concerns were just triggers from his past that he finally understands that he needs to work through.

It's a cute story about a high school boy trying to understand that you can have more than one trait and you don't have to follow the norm.

silenthillda's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0