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Mood: Cool ]
[ Currently: Chatting with my husband via Facebook. He’s in the same roo ]
I am a HUGE Barry Lyga fan. A former comic book writer, Lyga has turned his attention to teen books. Since then, he has consistently turned out works that are honest looks at teen life. They also deal with issues that they care about, without taking the After School Special route.
At the end of Lyga’s first novel the Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl, Kyra Sellers (Goth Girl) was being shipped of to a mental hospital after her father found out about the bullet she had stolen from Donald (Fanboy). Goth Girl Rising opens with Kyra returning from her institutionalization very angry. She feels that Fanboy has abandoned her and she is out to get revenge.
As Kyra works out how to exact her revenge, we see Goth Girl’s relationship with her father, whom she calls Roger. The two are struggling to deal with her mother’s death from lung cancer several years before. Roger, the smoker, has with drawn and gone numb, while Goth Girl has taken to lashing out.
We also get to meet Goth Girl’s other friends in this book. There is Simone, the girl who sleeps with boys to make herself feel loved and is constantly urging Goth Girl to lose her virginity. Goth Girl’s other friend Jecca proves to be more of conundrum. She and Goth Girl exchange kisses, yet Jecca purports to be in love with a boy.
This is the first time that Lyga has written a novel from the female point of view. For the most part he succeeds, capturing Goth Girl’s anger at her mother’s death and father’s distancing himself quite well. Her thoughts on the supposed power in a female body are also quite true to form.
This is a good outing and worth picking up. Teens and up due to language and situations. Still debating if this is going to make the next After Harry.