E. Lockhart knows right where the funny is.
I have never read any Lockhart before but when I saw the bright pink cover among other dusty gems in a secondhand book shop and I read John Green’s comment about the book right at the top, I knew I had to get it. So I did. And I devoured it in minutes.
Fly on the Wall tells the story of a young girl named Gretchen Yee, who studies art, reads comic books, has a crush on a boy named Titus, and struggles to stand out in a place where weird is the norm and everybody wants to be different and unique. One day, she randomly spews out that she wishes to become a fly on the wall of the boys’ locker room and ends up regretting it the next day. (Of course, this only lasts until she realizes that being stuck in a boys’ locker room means that she gets to see naked boys all day.)
This is a slim volume that is filled with Gretchen’s word vomit, daydreams, cynical thoughts about boys and school and her parents, happy thoughts about boys’ anatomy and Titus, and details about what’s actually going on inside a boys’ locker room.
The author does not dwell on the science of how one becomes a fly. Instead, she puts the focus on more important issues such as divorce, sexism, discrimination, bullying, and realizing one’s own sense of identity and individuality. She delivers her sentences with a punch and writes a beautiful and satisfying end to the story.
This was a post by Hanna, who has bangs, a grumbling tummy, and a toothache.
