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A review by katykelly
Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn
3.0
Tries to be too many things at once, some great ideas but none seem fully realised...
Who isn't going to want to read a book about a pterodactyl going to high school?!
It would be a fairly standard teenage story - overachiever Shiels is coping nicely with studies, student council responsibilities, college applications and a caring boyfriend who lets her enjoy the limelight. Out of the blue (sky) one day a new student arrives, and Shiels feels a powerful attraction to him, distracting her from her carefully constructed life.
This would be standard. But Pyke is a Pterodactyl.
Quite a concept. It opens up a whole can of worms (or herrings?) - where did he come from? Are there more somewhere? How did he learn English? Why is he attending school?
Shiels life is full - Pyke's arrival threatens to topple it all, the school dance she's organising, her happy, longstanding relationship with a guy who spookily can almost read her mind and is happy playing second fiddle, applications she needs to submit to her dream college course (despite her parents' wishes that she become a doctor).
There's a whole subplot that seems to need a larger role, when Shiels takes up running (I wasn't quite convinced why she did this) and meets a shoe-shop owner. This could have been a book in itself, and needed more time to develop and conclude.
Her boyfriend annoyed me a lot, he seemed very weak-willed, and Pyke himself is more of an 'idea', a sex object than a character (though no less so than any boyband idol or regular 'crush' subject).
The ending really didn't feel right to me either, still a lot unexplained and it didn't satisfy. If we think of this as a metaphor for teenage female lust/sexual awakening, I think Twilight did a similiar thing with vampires, but that made more sense with a mythical/unlikely object of affection. There are some very uncomfortable scenes as well (nothing graphic), but it never for me felt that the attraction was right.
It attracted me with its premise, but it didn't really work for me overall, though there are scenes, elements, aspects that do.
Who isn't going to want to read a book about a pterodactyl going to high school?!
It would be a fairly standard teenage story - overachiever Shiels is coping nicely with studies, student council responsibilities, college applications and a caring boyfriend who lets her enjoy the limelight. Out of the blue (sky) one day a new student arrives, and Shiels feels a powerful attraction to him, distracting her from her carefully constructed life.
This would be standard. But Pyke is a Pterodactyl.
Quite a concept. It opens up a whole can of worms (or herrings?) - where did he come from? Are there more somewhere? How did he learn English? Why is he attending school?
Shiels life is full - Pyke's arrival threatens to topple it all, the school dance she's organising, her happy, longstanding relationship with a guy who spookily can almost read her mind and is happy playing second fiddle, applications she needs to submit to her dream college course (despite her parents' wishes that she become a doctor).
There's a whole subplot that seems to need a larger role, when Shiels takes up running (I wasn't quite convinced why she did this) and meets a shoe-shop owner. This could have been a book in itself, and needed more time to develop and conclude.
Her boyfriend annoyed me a lot, he seemed very weak-willed, and Pyke himself is more of an 'idea', a sex object than a character (though no less so than any boyband idol or regular 'crush' subject).
The ending really didn't feel right to me either, still a lot unexplained and it didn't satisfy. If we think of this as a metaphor for teenage female lust/sexual awakening, I think Twilight did a similiar thing with vampires, but that made more sense with a mythical/unlikely object of affection. There are some very uncomfortable scenes as well (nothing graphic), but it never for me felt that the attraction was right.
It attracted me with its premise, but it didn't really work for me overall, though there are scenes, elements, aspects that do.