The astonishing adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

The astonishing adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl / by Barry Lyga.— Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006
311 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 9780618723928

1. Comic book fans -- Fiction. 2. Comic books and teenagers – Fiction. 3. Goth culture (Subculture) -- Fiction. 4. Graphic novels -- Authorship -- Fiction. 5. High schools – Fiction. 6. Interpersonal relations – Fiction. 7. Self-perception – Fiction.

813.6

Life in is rough for Don at South Brook High. He may be smart, but he knows he’s “the town geek.” He’s lived in rural South Brook for nine years with his mother and “the step-fascist,” and he has ½ a friend, Carl. Like Don, Carl is a big comic book fan, but he’s also—and Don can’t figure out why—a member of the Lacrosse, Basketball, and Football teams with “the Jock Jerks.” These are guys who push Don around. He has a terrible lust for Dina Jurgens the “Senior Goddess,” but he knows he’s beneath her notice. He’s made “the List” of all the people he wants to disappear into oblivion. He stays up late at night wishing for a new computer and drawing and writing his own graphic novel. He spends the day at school trying not to be noticed.

One day trying to get out of gym as early as possible he purposely doesn’t dodge in dodge ball so he can stand on the sidelines. Unfortunately, so does big, dumb and mean Mitchell Frampton. He gets out of the game early so he can punch Don in the shoulder repeatedly when the coaches aren’t watching, which is often. That night, much to his surprise Don gets an IM from an unknown sender, Promethea387. Her question is, “Why do you let him hit you?”

Intrigued by Promethea387, he agrees to meet her after school. Her name is Kyra, and she’s the palest thinnest black-clad chain smoker he’s ever met. She asks some very uncomfortably probing questions, and only calls him Fanboy. They do have some things in common. They’re both sophomores. They both have learners’ permits. But Kyra doesn’t mind driving without an accompanying adult or driving fast. And Kyra doesn’t just wish that someone with an annoying bumper sticker would just disappear. She tries to ram the offending vehicle. It’s the start of a rough ride for Fanboy and Goth Girl.

Lyga, a “recovering comic book geek,” himself has perfectly captured teen angst and isolation turbocharged it into a frighteningly funny and fast-paced novel. Don’s rocky relationship with Kyra, a girl with some decidedly self-destructive tendencies, shocks him out of his self-imposed isolation and into situations where he gets some helpful advice from an unexpected muse.