Bruiser

Loved this story.

A surprising find. I hadn't heard anything about Neal Shusterman before I picked this up in the library but I'm impressed. I truly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author, especially since I hear his other works are better.

This was a masterpiece- but what else have I come to expect from Neal Shusterman? He's cool like that.

This book comes from a completely implausible premise- a boy named Brewster who automatically takes on the wounds of everyone he loves. His brother Cody kicks a rock? It's Brew's toe that hurts. Neal Shusterman has a knack for writing the supernatural believably. His character's don't go into long explanations of how they're “this way”. Like in The Schwa Was Here, the character doesn't know why he has this power, and he doesn't like it, but he's learned to live with it.

This book was also relatable. The unnatural was explored through well-understood circumstances of high school life, sports injuries, teenage friendships, romances, and rivalries, abuse, and parents' divorce.

I love how Shusterman described the soft terror of not feeling upset.
I love how little-boyish Cody was. It's hard as a grown person to put yourself back in your third-grade brain and think how you would have responded at that age. Shusterman has it down.
I love how Brewster and Brontë were friends. Not Just Friends, but their relationship wasn't all making out and cuddling and stuff. It was watching out for each other and trying to help each other- even if sometimes their help wasn't as good as they thought it would be. They are possibly the normalest literary teen couple I've read (at least since I was a teenager myself).
I love Tennyson's friendships with his sister and her boyfriend. He was a good friend. He was also really selfish, which is human nature.
I LOVE the scene of the uncle's stroke. Has Neal Shusterman had a stroke and remembers what is was like? Whoa.
I love how the first chapter made me laugh out loud multiple times (“Rest her soul”) and then the book got so heart-wrenching and serious. This is how you write. I took the bait from the first 2 pages and then I was reeled into this world of heartache, or the emptiness of its absence.
I love the whole vegetarianism thing.
I love the format of a lot a Brew's poetry. There's the one that works itself backwards at the end, it's really cool. Sometimes the verse form seemed force but other times it was so awesomely effective.

I LOVE THIS BOOK AND I LOVE NEAL SHUSTERMAN ok i'm done