A Fall into Read Challenge Selection…

Boy Toy
Barry Lyga

A riveting and disturbing novel about a seventh-grade boy who has a very adult relationship with his female teacher. Josh Mendel has a secret. Unfortunately, everyone knows what it is. Five years ago, Josh’s life changed. Drastically. And everyone in his school, his town-seems like the world-thinks they understand. But they don’t-they can’t. And now, about to graduate from high school, Josh is still trying to sort through the pieces. First there’s Rachel, the girl he thought he’d lost years ago. She’s back, and she’s determined to be part of his life, whether he wants her there or not. Then there are college decisions to make, and the toughest baseball game of his life coming up, and a coach who won’t stop pushing Josh all the way to the brink. And then there’s Eve. Her return brings with it all the memories of Josh’s past. It’s time for Josh to face the truth about what happened. If only he know what the truth was…

As I write this, I’m still actually in the process of reading the book. And, the truth is, I’m finding it very difficult to stop reading it. After finishing Beastly, I immediately picked Lyga’s novel up; I’d been wanting to read it for some time now, and once I cracked the spine, there was absolutely no going back.

The novel opens with a list: “Ten Things I Learned at the Age of Twelve.” Most are typical, school related items, and you get an immediate sense that Josh is intelligent and able to actually process what he learns. But then you get to number ten: “How to please a woman.” That could have been phrased so many different ways, but again, the way Josh states it reveals a bit about him.

When we first meet Josh he’s actually about six weeks away from graduating from High School. He’s done exceedingly well in school, but also with a bat in his hand, squaring off against a pitcher. He’s obsessed with numbers – specifically batting averages and the like – and with getting out of his hometown as fast as he can. Why? Well, there are reasons, namely that he was having a sexual relationship with his seventh grade history teacher, Eve Sherman.

We don’t learn right away how it developed, but as soon as Josh begins to disclose the events that led up to the revelation of the affair the book takes on a consuming narrative. I absolutely had to keep reading, and I did, well past one o’clock this morning. The start of my work day looming on the horizon was the only thing that could – reluctantly – get me to put the book down.

But before I go further, I need to say that I like Josh; his character has depth, his thoughts are articulate, and even his rage begs for sympathy, not pity or even condemnation. If his character hadn’t been so strong, the novel wouldn’t be nearly as impacting as it is. It’s his voice, and the way he tells his story, that makes the whole thing so readable. It’s not the content, it’s not the subject; he somehow transcends all of that.

The more time Eve and I spent together, the guiltier I started to feel…Eve was my friend. She had talked about how our “playing” together made us both feel good, but I knew I was getting more out of this than she was. I was getting mind-shattering bliss and pleasure every time we were together, sometimes twice. She wasn’t getting anything like that. {page 206}

And where it goes from there…

I never, ever stopped thrilling to the sight each time I saw her naked. Every time, it was new. Never boring. Never old.

She taught me how to make love and she taught me how to f*** and she taught me the difference. We ended up doing more of the latter than the former. {page 208}

I remember stopping when I read that last passage; I read it again, and again, and tried to settle my mind on the knowledge that a twelve year old was in possession of these thoughts. And that’s just a very small sampling.

It’s a whole other thing to watch Josh struggle with the effects of that adult relationship. Can you imagine having experienced so much of the sexual world at twelve with someone older? Can you imagine what that would do to your adolescent impulses and how you act on them? I’d include another passage from the novel here, but you should read it for yourself.

And that’s what I’m going to do now – get back to reading. More thoughts later…

It’s finished.

It was fantastic.

That’s really all I can say because I have no idea how to articulate it any better. Following Josh on his path, watching him discover truths he had denied himself, it was just…like I said, fantastic.

Boy Toy isn’t my typical read; now and again I’ll stray from the genres to “straight fiction,” but it’s a rarity. The only other time I can remember being really struck by this type of fiction was John Green’s Looking for Alaska, and that was brilliant on so many levels. I highly recommend Lyga’s Boy Toy, and I’ve already got The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl (which is set in the same High School as Boy Toy) in my bag to go home with me tonight.