A review by mandelb
Sprout by Dale Peck

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

well.... another formative reread crossed off the list. I enjoyed this but I didn't find it to be a particularly emotional experience, maybe because my favorite/most effective part is the writing style. and that's what I really thought about on this reread, how sprout is such an unreliable narrator, how he constructs the story - the whole thing is told in past tense, but it almost seems like he wrote the whole first part at once (in those sessions with Mrs Miller?) and then once Ty is introduced he's writing as he goes. but also, he occasionally has perspective on the whole story, or uses anachronisms of his own life - the reference to throwing cell phones in one of his first scenes with Ruthie, when they're still in 7th grade, or the fuzzy timeline of how and when he started dying his hair and hooking up with Ian. in this way I think the narrative invokes memory really well, because sprout is mixing what he knows at the end with what he knew in the moment, and misremembering, and backtracking, taking tangents, generally being an unreliable narrator not because he wants to mislead us, but because he's human. it's so well constructed but I also feel it might be why the book was never that successful; it's not inviting to say the least. so funny, though. a huge influence on my style for sure. apart from that - I love ty so much, and I love how obscured he is because of how little sprout knew parts of him. Mrs Miller, his dad, Ruthie, Ian, too - sprout thinks he knows everything about them but each surprises him and us. and that heartbreaking last scene with ty will never leave me. he screamed yes! I like to believe they found each other again but maybe they didn't. I really should read other dale peck books.