Review: Beetle Boy, by Margaret Willey

9781467726399

When he was seven, Charlie Porter never intended to become the world's youngest published author. He just wanted his father to stop crying. So he told him a story about a talking beetle—a dumb little story his mother made up to make him feel better. (That was before she left and feeling "better" became impossible.) But Charlie's story not only made his father stop crying. It made him start planning. The story became a book, and then it became school events and book festivals, and a beetle costume, and a catchphrase—"I was born to write!"

Because of the story, Charlie stayed seven until he was ten. And then it all ended. Or it should have. Now Charlie is eighteen, and the beetles still haunt his dreams. The childhood he never really had is about to end . . . but there's still a chance to have a story of his own. Beetle Boy is a novel of a broken family, the long shadow of neglect, and the light of small kindnesses.

Last year, I reviewed Four Secrets, Willey's earlier YA novel. That one was told in several different voices, and Willey did a fantastic job of making them distinct individuals.

This one is completely from the perspective of the main character. And, what a story! Charlie is currently laid up at his girlfriend, Clara's apartment with a torn Achilles tendon. Clara is very sweet, but her background makes it impossible for her to believe she can't mend Charlie's fractured family relationships while he is waiting for his leg to heal. As the reader, we not only get the raw story of charlie's history, shown in well-placed flashbacks, but we are privy to his very Freudian beetle dreams. It is easy to become emotionally involved with Charlie as he works to come to some sort of terms with his past and his relationships. There is no nice, neat ending, but a sense of a life finally beginning, if that doesn't sound too hokey. 

No gifting suggestions, because this just isn't that kind of book (although we joked about a gift certificate for therapy sessions). Still a great book to give someone who likes character-driven novels, or meaty stories delivered gradually. 

A list of adjectives I just pulled from other Beetle Boy reviews: "wrenching", "riveting", "potent", "painful", "demanding", "riveting (again)",  "traumatic", "emotional", "powerful"...you get the picture! Obviously one which has had an effect on its readers already.

Review: Four Secrets by Margaret Willey

 

978-076-138-5356

 

Well, now, that looks interesting on a white background. I like it.

 

And, I liked the book.

 

"To you the idea to kidnap Chase Dobson might seem like a mistake. But to us... we were just trying to stop him from being so...evil. We just...we had to stop him. No one helps kids like us. Not at my school. We aren't the important kids. We knew it wouldn't stop unless we stopped it ourselves."

Katie, Nate, and Renata had no farther to fall down the social ladder. But when they hit bottom, they found each other. Together, they wanted to change things. To stop the torment.

So they made a plan. One person seemed to have everyone's secrets—and all the power. If they could stop him...

But secrets are complicated, powerful things. They are hard to keep. And even a noble plan to stop a bully can go horribly wrong.

 

That suspenseful set-up does not disappoint. What happened - the torment of the bully, the plot to do something about it, and what went wrong from there - is told in not just the voices of the three students involved, but from the perspective of the social worker trying to make sense of it all. Stories written this way, in alternating chapters, are not at all new, but some authors do it better than others. Willey has no difficulty giving each character his or her own voice and personality, and manages the disparity between what the omniscient reader knows, and what the social worker has not been privy to.

 

The characters are quirky, and may not appeal to every reader, but I think those who do connect with them will do so with a passion. Several secrets are revealed throughout the book, many not until the final chapter. That makes the ending more of an information dump than a conclusion, but young readers will be happy to have all the juicy details at last.

This is billed as a younger YA book, but it has more of a middle grade feel to me. I would recommend it for both middle and high school libraries. Thank-you to Carolrhoda (Lerner) for the review copy.