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A review by maggie_sotos
Flyboy Action Figure Comes with a Gas Mask by Jim Munroe
4.0
There were so many parts of this book that rocked – the characters, the off-beat humor, the sheer scope of the fantasy. All of it made for a really exciting sci-fi feminist adventure that has held up pretty well for having been published in the late 90s! It’s also interesting that a straight while male is casting himself as the sidekick crusader for social justice alongside the real superhero (his bisexual girlfriend). Intriguing, alternative, and attention-getting.
As a narrator, you also want to like Ryan. He’s funny, he’s sweet, and his heart is always in the right place. But there is also an undeniable man-boy thing going on. When under pressure, he wills himself into different species of insects and hides from his troubles. It’s fitting with the subversive anti-hero theme of the story, but it’s also a little irritating. You knew dudes like Ryan in college, and as much as we wanted to root for them, you also felt frustrated at their inability to transition into adulthood.
One of the only things holding this story back, for me, was the narrator’s informality as a story-teller. In terms of his voice, he reads the way that people speak in informal conversation (ie he jumps in mid-anecdote and assumes you know all of the characters and offers you no introduction or back-story to anyone). At first I found this charming; it felt like he was chatting up old friends. Of course Ken and Phil and Jack are your besties…wait, Ken is one of your roommates, right? No? Wait, is Phil that guy who has that musician girlfriend? Crap, no, that’s Jack. No wait, that’s that OTHER dude, Mark. Ugh. By the end of the book I had completely mixed up major characters because they had been used so interchangeably in the text. There’s a difference between informal prose and “Dear Diary”; this often leaned towards the latter.
As a narrator, you also want to like Ryan. He’s funny, he’s sweet, and his heart is always in the right place. But there is also an undeniable man-boy thing going on. When under pressure, he wills himself into different species of insects and hides from his troubles. It’s fitting with the subversive anti-hero theme of the story, but it’s also a little irritating. You knew dudes like Ryan in college, and as much as we wanted to root for them, you also felt frustrated at their inability to transition into adulthood.
One of the only things holding this story back, for me, was the narrator’s informality as a story-teller. In terms of his voice, he reads the way that people speak in informal conversation (ie he jumps in mid-anecdote and assumes you know all of the characters and offers you no introduction or back-story to anyone). At first I found this charming; it felt like he was chatting up old friends. Of course Ken and Phil and Jack are your besties…wait, Ken is one of your roommates, right? No? Wait, is Phil that guy who has that musician girlfriend? Crap, no, that’s Jack. No wait, that’s that OTHER dude, Mark. Ugh. By the end of the book I had completely mixed up major characters because they had been used so interchangeably in the text. There’s a difference between informal prose and “Dear Diary”; this often leaned towards the latter.