Reality Boy Review

Reality Boy by A.S. King

Title: Reality Boy

Author: A. S. King

Series: None

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: October 22, 2013

Genre: Realistic Fiction; Contemporary; Romance; Young Adult

Pages: 353

Format: Hardback

goodreads

Gerald Faust knows exactly when he started feeling angry: the day his mother invited a reality television crew into his five-year-old life. Twelve years later, he’s still haunted by his rage-filled youth—which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle—and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts, zero friends, and clueless adults dumping him in the special education room at school.

Nothing is ever going to change. No one cares that he’s tried to learn to control himself, and the girl he likes has no idea who he really is. Everyone’s just waiting for him to snap…and he’s starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that.

In this fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge, highly acclaimed Printz Honor author A.S. King explores the desperate reality of a former child “star” who finally breaks free of his anger by creating possibilities he never knew he deserved.

Reality Boy is my first A.S. King novel. And I can’t really say that it bodes well for any future King books.

Gerald Faust has a messed up family in a messed up life. And it all started the day his mother invited in the TV crew of a hit reality show. “It’s supposed to help,” his mother said. “It’s supposed to fix things.” And by “things”, she meant Gerald. Twelve years later and nothing’s been fixed, nothing’s been changed. If anything, it’s made things worse than they actually are. The only thing the TV crew seemed to bring were reasons for Gerald to be ostracized in his own home and plenty of clinically diagnosed anger management issues. Gerald grew up thinking he was nothing and didn’t deserve to want things. Now, he must break free of his restricted life and finally fight for what he wants.

This was weird. Really weird. And not the good kind of weird. The kind of weird that makes you go, “What the f-- am I reading?” The plot line was too strange for me to actually like reading it. The characters were bizarre, unrealistic, and strangely unfeeling. For example, Hannah, Gerald’s love interest, was so unsympathetic to his life. Even when he obviously needed someone to comfort him, she just left him, basically saying that her life was just as bad, but she got over it and so should he. Which it not the case. She was rude, selfish, and obviously not a very good friend. Basically, I really disliked her as a character. Plus, there was, like, no chemistry between Gerald and Hannah.

While I didn't like the mood or atmosphere in the novel, the questions it raised were good ones. The questions about mental illness, and living with mental illness, not only as the patient, but as the people around the patient. While the victim of a mental illness might be the only one diagnosed to be dealing with the disorder, it is the whole family that has to live with and work around it also. They are not left unaffected, and I think this book does a good job of pointing that out. Plus, it points out that children who behave badly do so for a reason, which I think is a widely misunderstood concept.

Even with the awareness it brings about issues such as mental disorders, bad home life, and the effects of been stuck in front of the public eye, this book was just too strange for me to enjoy. I’m pretty sure Reality Boy is just one of those books that you either love or hate. And let’s just say that I definitely didn't love this book.