by Jenna Scott Therea Toten’s The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B created a lot of conflicting feelings in my heart of hearts.
On the one hand, as someone with anxiety, I related heavily to Adam Spencer Ross (known as Batman to some) and his struggle to cope with his OCD. I noticed a lot of similar feelings of guilt and stress regarding his split-family to which I am known to succumb. And, to a certain extent, I even saw myself in his quest to prove himself worthy of a girl in his support group. But something that stuck out to me, as a gay woman with a library almost exclusively consisting of female and queer protagonists, was the subtle microaggressions against women. Adam infantilizes the women in his life: his girlfriend, his mom, and his stepmother all need to be protected, just like his little brother. If we ascribe these to his OCD symptoms, and look at the rest of the treatment of women, we still find issues. The three girls in his support group are constantly making snide comments behind each other’s backs, which the novel barely even recognizes as a problem. The attribution of meaningless traits to girls really stood out to me. Adam doesn’t sit with his legs crossed, because that’s what girls do, and he doesn’t cry, because he’s a boy. The book never addresses these uncomfortably subconscious issues with women in any way, continuing the harsh cycle of misogynism in a small, yet not inconsequential, way. All in all, I actually enjoyed Room 13B. Its plot, while derivative and not at all original, served its purpose well as a vehicle for its characters. Its portrayal of OCD was not at all demonizing like certain modern media and the characters were likable. But it’s important to notice and critique the subtle ways in which we, as a culture, demean and devalue women.
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BY LIZA STRANG The coming of age story of senior Brett "Stick" Patterson as he struggles to find a balance between making his father happy and finding his own happiness, and how his life changes upon meeting the genius nerd of the school, Preston Underwood, during a bullying incident instigated by Brett's friends on the football team. Eventually Preston teaches Stick about courage, not caring what others think of you, and doing what's right. As Stick learns more about Preston's life and points of view he finds himself making choices about problems he had been avoiding in hopes of changing his life.The book centers around Brett's conflicts with his team mates as he realizes the shallow relationship the share and with his father, an alcoholic since the death of Brett's mother.
With simple syntax and sentence structure, but more mature themes than are generally found in JV fiction, this story is focused towards high school aged readers. The relatively easy writing makes the book a viable choice for readers of any level. Though the characters and character relationships were not entirely believable in my opinion, they were representative of the sort of views a teenager might have and help to paint the overall themes of the book. "Stick" contains many topics that would be relatable to its YA audience such as single parent families, the pressure of getting into college with a scholarship, and bullying. I'm not going to say that this is my new personal favorite book, or anything, but I will say that it was a pretty enjoyable read and would be good for a large variety of readers. |
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