The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl by Barry Lyga

In 6th grade Fanboy started keeping a list of people who “pissed him off “. He had only one friend, and wasn’t popular. Fanboy aspires to become a graphic novelist, and is somewhat of a loner. He befriends Gothgirl, who seems to be on her own agenda of disillusions. After some toiling, Fanboy with Gothgirl’s help cooks up enough courage to show his work in progress to an author of comics, but the idea turns drastic. After meeting the author, Fanboy is so excited that he’s meeting him in person that he overreacts to the visit, which freaks the author out. The author freaks out because he thinks Fanboy is one of the weirdest people he’s ever met, and to have been accompanied by Gothgirl didn’t help his credibility.

The understated themes in this book are depression, fear, and trust. There are also feelings of neglect, since his parents divorce, his new step-fascist is the night and day of his mother’s life. No matter how much he wanted to get revenge on those who were on his list, for whatever reason, he decided that the be revenge would be living well and proving those wrong, who thought that he would be nothing.

Lyga has an interesting way of drawing readers into the setting of the story. He brings to the surface, issues and stereotype that a lot of teens are faced with, which cause readers to show a since of compassion for his characters. This story is one that can be told from many middle schools across the country, and touches every culture; it’s literature like this that holds the subtle messages of will power, dignity and courage.