May 2013 by Simon & Schuster
439 pages
Five stars
"Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.
With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.
Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking."- Goodreads
I absolutely loved this book. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it when I learned the main character, Ryan Dean aka Winger, was 14 years old. I remember how I was at that age, and I was so annoying. I tend to stay away from books where the characters are that young. It just depends on how the book is written and how the characters come off. The Percy Jackson series for instance, is written in a way that I have to keep reminding myself how young they are. The things they deal with and the way they behave is so grown up. Also, I don't read many books where the main character is male. This book worked perfectly though. Everything about it made sense. It was real; funny and heartbreaking all at once. I was reading it while on a road trip and there were times when I would actually laugh out loud.
I had a few problems with Winger. He did some stupid stuff and acted impulsively. What 14 year old doesn't though? I wasn't a fan of the Megan situation. I'm team Annie all the way.
I loved Joey; he was by far my favorite character in Winger. He was the perfect best friend for Winger, when all of his other friends were just kind of arrogant jerks. He seemed to be the voice of reason and steered Winger towards making better decisions. As the captain of the rugby team, he stood up for his teammates, even if he didn't like them much off the playing field.
When I started this book, I didn't realize there would be a second book. I didn't realize the story would continue until after I finished. The loss of a character in Winger will change the flow of the story, which is something I am not excited to explore. The end was very dark and heavy. I am excited to see Wingers relationship with Annie play out and how he moves through his senior year, now that the environment has changed.
Andrew Smith is a fantastic writer and I am so excited to read more novels by him.
**Spoilers**
The loss of Joey was heartbreaking. It was so unfair. The few days leading up to the dance had me worried and I thought something bad would happen. The situation was so real and so heartbreaking. Jerks like Casey exist and this is a very important topic to our youth. It's not okay to treat anyone that way because of their sexual orientation, race, gender, hobbies or whatever else bullies choose to hate about others. I've dealt with my fair share of loss and connected to the way Winger dealt with his grief. Something so tragic as that changes you forever.
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