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A review by christajls
Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark
5.0
This review originally posted at More Than Just Magic
This is my second verse novel. The first one I read was ok. Interesting story but the poetry didn’t really add anything for me. If anything it was more of a distraction. With Freakboy I had the opposite reaction. The verse style really enhanced the emotion of the story, and really allowed me to get into the heads of the characters.
Freakboy is actually the story of three individuals – Brendan, Vanessa and Angel.
Brendan is at the centre of the story. On the surface he’s your average teenage boy. Does well at school, on the wrestling team, girlfriend who loves him. Life isn’t too bad. But that’s just the surface. Underneath things are a lot more confusing. His sexual identity feels more wibbly wobbly than all of time and space. Gay and straight don’t even begin to cover it. Freakboy does a gret job exploring the fluid nature of sexuality and sometimes our current language and labels aren’t enough to fully explain how we feel. This is where the verse style adds to the story – it allows Brenden to speak more freely about what he’s going through.
The same goes for Vanessa, Brenden’s girlfriend. She thinks she’s got it all in Brenden. A loving, caring boyfriend who sneaks her pancakes in bed. She’s so sure he’s all she needs, she’s willing to give up almost everything else for him, including her friends. But when Brendan starts pulling away from her, it sends her into a bit of an emotional roller coaster. This may be Brenden’s story but Freakboy illustrates that no person is island. Brendan may be the one struggling but those struggles have ripple effects.
And last but certainly not least is Angel. She is a male-to-female transexual who has already come to terms with who she is. She serves as a juxtaposition to Brenden who is trying to figure himself out. She was easily my favourite of the three. I loved her positive attitude and how strong she was despite everything that had happened to her. She serves as a bit of a mentor/guide for Brenden and I wished everyone who is questioning their sexual identity had someone like Angel to talk to.
Freakboy is totally a character driven novel. It explores the challenges of discovering who you are, and how “who you are” is never truly set in stone. I also appreciated that Freakboy presented sexuality as something that’s fluid. We shouldn’t necessarily try and stick labels on everything just to make ourselves feel more comfortable. Sometimes messy and complicated are what we need.
Even if you don’t think the novel in verse format is for you Freakboy is worth a shot. It made a convert out of me.
This is my second verse novel. The first one I read was ok. Interesting story but the poetry didn’t really add anything for me. If anything it was more of a distraction. With Freakboy I had the opposite reaction. The verse style really enhanced the emotion of the story, and really allowed me to get into the heads of the characters.
Freakboy is actually the story of three individuals – Brendan, Vanessa and Angel.
Brendan is at the centre of the story. On the surface he’s your average teenage boy. Does well at school, on the wrestling team, girlfriend who loves him. Life isn’t too bad. But that’s just the surface. Underneath things are a lot more confusing. His sexual identity feels more wibbly wobbly than all of time and space. Gay and straight don’t even begin to cover it. Freakboy does a gret job exploring the fluid nature of sexuality and sometimes our current language and labels aren’t enough to fully explain how we feel. This is where the verse style adds to the story – it allows Brenden to speak more freely about what he’s going through.
The same goes for Vanessa, Brenden’s girlfriend. She thinks she’s got it all in Brenden. A loving, caring boyfriend who sneaks her pancakes in bed. She’s so sure he’s all she needs, she’s willing to give up almost everything else for him, including her friends. But when Brendan starts pulling away from her, it sends her into a bit of an emotional roller coaster. This may be Brenden’s story but Freakboy illustrates that no person is island. Brendan may be the one struggling but those struggles have ripple effects.
And last but certainly not least is Angel. She is a male-to-female transexual who has already come to terms with who she is. She serves as a juxtaposition to Brenden who is trying to figure himself out. She was easily my favourite of the three. I loved her positive attitude and how strong she was despite everything that had happened to her. She serves as a bit of a mentor/guide for Brenden and I wished everyone who is questioning their sexual identity had someone like Angel to talk to.
Freakboy is totally a character driven novel. It explores the challenges of discovering who you are, and how “who you are” is never truly set in stone. I also appreciated that Freakboy presented sexuality as something that’s fluid. We shouldn’t necessarily try and stick labels on everything just to make ourselves feel more comfortable. Sometimes messy and complicated are what we need.
Even if you don’t think the novel in verse format is for you Freakboy is worth a shot. It made a convert out of me.