Winger
Ratings19
Average rating3.8
I found some of this is amusing...but I quickly grew weary of reading about Ryan Dean's obsession with his nether regions and the rest of toxic masculinity at Pine Whatzit boarding school. Female characters are either ‘hot' or ‘not hot' and offer little more in regards to character development. I did a fair amount of eye rolling after the initial charm started to wear thin. And the penultimate crisis is yet another tired bury-your-gay trope.
I literally have no idea what I can say about this book other than amazing. Maybe the first 20 pages were meh, but the rest of the book more than made up for it. Andrew Smith's writing is both entertaining and hilarious. I don't really know what else to say about it. I just love the way he combines what is happening to Ryan Dean, what is going on around him, and what Ryan Dean is thinking. It is amazing. Plus all the pictures and cartoons and things. And I almost forgot this book also takes place at a boarding school, you cannot get much better than that.
Well, now that I've completely ranted about how much I loved this book. Let me just continue and say that even though Ryan Dean is a ridiculously flawed character who makes ridiculously stupid mistakes, I cannot help but love him and eagerly wait to see how he is going to talk his way out of something. And I felt so bad for him at the end. He had finally got his life mostly together, when life just had to throw a curve ball at him. Regardless of the end, Ryan Dean was still able to grow throughout the book and was not the same character by any means at the end.
The last thing I want to mention is how much I absolutely adored the final chapter of this book. Even though it was less than a page long. It was perfect and totally summed everything up. That chapter has the potential to be my favorite way to end a book (at least a book that isn't in a series).
Definitely one of my favorites of the year!
Winger by Andrew Smith was pretty damn perfect until we got to the end but we will talk about that later.
Ryan Dean West a.k.a. Winger is an awkward 14 year old student who gets landed in the O-Hall with a bunch of trouble kids his junior year. The readers will follow Ryan Dean as he tells us the story of his junior year and it is pretty drama packed. Winger is in love with his best friend Annie and he has been since he started school. It was obvious that this was going to be one of those stories where he gets the girl. It isn't had to image. WInger is cute, funny, and grows some balls his junior year.
[ MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ]
He gets into fights with his guy best friends and starts hanging out with the guys in O-Hall more. He starts to grow friendships with them all and gets closer with them throughout the year. Joey is the captain of their team and he is also gay. Everyone knows this and it isn't much of a secret. Winger and Joey become close friends... more like best friends as the year goes on. They can tell each other everything and Joey helps him deal with his issues. They're pretty great and Joey is the sweetest ever.
I also really loved the illustrations that are in the book. It brings his journal more to life because he is sort of a comic creator. It was cute when he would send little comics to Annie. It brought the stories more to life.
Now lets talk about Annie and Winger. They are super cute together and I loved their little “don't kiss me” game. After the almost first kiss, you could tell that Annie felt the same way for him. Especially, in that letter that she sent him. It was cute how her parents were when he went to visit them. I don't know any other parents that would be okay with having their daughters first boyfriend sleep over at their house. I know mine wouldn't but her parents were perfect! I don't know the deal with Winger's parents but you only got to see them through phone chats. They're far away though.
[ WARNING DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNLESS YOU HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK ]
NOW to the heartbreaking ending that made me gasp in shock and make my heart sink. Andrew Smith why couldn't you stop the story before part 3? It was going so well and I was so happy for all the characters. You had to break my heart into two. POOR JOEY. Omg, my heart hurt when I read that one sentence. I can't believe that happened. I cannot believe that Casey mainly and Nick did that! Holy fucking shit. I was so shocked.
It was so sad seeing Winger have to deal with his death and know that he was beat to death by two people he shared a building with. I felt for him and it was sad how he said that he was trying to get better. Ahsdjsdkjflskd he had Annie though and they were getting away for Thanksgiving.
OVERALL, highly recommend. I also so that there is going to be a SEQUEL so I am super exited for that! I cannot wait to see what else Winger gets into.