There were some laugh out loud moments in this coming-of-age story from Elissa Soave, but nothing prepared me for the ending, which left me feeling very sad.
Very much a maturation story for our times and whilst I enjoyed it immensely it felt like a story I’d read before. Perhaps as you grow older and you read so many books complete originality becomes something of a luxury. What kept me on board with this book was the author’s perception and ability to see into a character.
Wendy broke my heart. It was clear fairly early on that she was pretty much firmly on the spectrum and maybe we can thank Mark Haddon for making it okay to have autistic people as leading characters. But it’s not enough to merely write about autism unless the writer understands the Asperger’s mind and this writer does. Perfectly. She’s absolutely nailed it. We see the world through Wendy’s eyes and therein much of the poignancy is derived. The autistic tendency for obsession and compulsion is perfectly described here with Wendy’s belief that she is in tune with a published writer.
But if Wendy broke my heart, then Ginger practically finished me off! There’s a sense of knowing exactly what’s going on, but no one actually coming out and saying it. Wendy probably doesn’t intuit with her particular way of thinking and you get the sense that Ginger is simply too fearful to spell it out.
Wendy’s bus driving reminding me a bit of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters! You’re either on the bus or you’re off the bus as a metaphor for being hip or unhip and the fact that both Wendy and Ginger are on and off the bus strengthens the metaphor to show their confusion and the difficulty of navigating life in their challenging worlds.
But if it is sounding a little bleak there is some humour in the book, especially Wendy’s penchant for literal interpretations and it is a story about friendship and loyalty.
My thanks to HQ stories where I won the book in a draw.
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