Winger - Review

PC: Goodreads
Synopsis:
Ryan Dean West is only a 14-year-old skinny-ass-bitch, but he's a top-performing, rugby star junior at a boarding school for rich white kids. This presents some obvious problems: people underestimate how much of a badass he can be and they treat him like a little kid which, understandably, pisses him off to no end. So here he is, in love with his best friend (whose age and grade level correspond properly) and thrust into Opportunity Hall with Pinesol Academy's version of juvenile delinquents.

I know. He's such a loser.

And this is barely breaching the problems that come up.

P.S. The school's name is not really 'Pinesol Academy'.

SPOILER ALERT for Scramble's review. For the non spoiler review, go on to Omelette down below. Cover your eyes as you're scrolling. 

Scramble:
Ryan Dean is a great MC. He's incredibly flawed: whiny, horny, and ungrateful. But, he's also self-conscious and reflective, which brings him around to a good ending. His love story is a bit obvious (there's no possible storyline where he doesn't end up with Annie) but the turns that his various friendships take are definitely more interesting and surprising.

Let's start with Chas (help me out with pronunciations, eh?) (Shut up, Scramble.). I didn't expect him to be so sincere. I really didn't think he loved Megan, nor that he and Ryan Dean would end up being friends at the end (am I the only one who shuddered at that?). Then you have Seanie and JP, who are kind of assholes in my opinion, but they kept Ryan Dean a little immature. I think he needed a lower dose of them. Kevin seemed like a really nice guy even though we didn't see too much of him. Left-handed high five for Kevin.

Annie. She and Ryan Dean are perfect for each other and should always be friends but the relationship jumped from her being essentially his big sister to being his girlfriend reallllllly fast and that made me a little uncomfortable. If the relationship hadn't been so thoroughly set up, I would have been pretty creeped out.

Okay so Joey.
Let's all take a moment and remember what a genuinely good human being Joey was. Everyone needs a friend like Joey, even if they may not deserve him. Interestingly enough, in the Goodreads synopsis (and my own above, come to think of it) Joey is not explicitly referenced, but he's the one that finally makes Ryan Dean grow up. He's the only one who calls him out on his shit. He's the only character I really liked. And for (I counted) 15 pages after he goes walking back to O-Hall by himself I was mentally screaming "WHERE THE FUCK IS JOEY DON'T TELL ME YOU FUCKING KILLED JOEY" until Ryan Dean finally says "But Joey didn't show up that day for Calculus" and I just about bitch-slapped the cover (which is beautiful by the way - very good book design) because he doesn't appreciate the gold that is Joseph Cosentino.

Oh and Mr. Wellins? I'm not even Christian but that man needs Jesus.

Here comes the criticism: the romance. It didn't work for me. I guess they were cute but I spent a lot of time hung up on the fact that Ryan Dean was fooling around with Megan and thinking about Annie. Oh well. Then there's Annie's family that just didn't seem real (mothers, please let me know if it is, in fact, normal to allow a boy to stand around in your house with just boxers in front of your 16-year-old daughter). Lastly, Pinesol Academy just wasn't diverse enough for me. Every single character was rich and white and it bothered me that this book had the potential to attack so many more social issues but it didn't.

Overall this book was interesting but a little dull in certain parts (mostly the romance for me), and then the last 60-70 pages were really emotional. The biggest thing I'm taking away from this is that it isn't always all about the main character. Ryan Dean hurt a lot of people in the process of becoming a better person himself, and honestly I cared far more about Joey than I did about him, and Joey suffered a lot more than he did over the course of the whole book. Definitely a recommended read.


Omelette:
Wow. That was a long ass review from Scramble. (Btw it's called Pine Mountain, you illiterate egg). I, unfortunately, am not that eloquent in stating my opinions on books, but nonetheless I will try my best to review this book.
So. Winger. This book was one hell of a ride. Mostly because of how much it made me laugh. The humor in this book is quite crude and perverted but I loved it. Ryan had a great voice and I didn't find myself getting bored with him. I loved his little pictures and charts in between chapters. However, his constant need to say "I'm such a loser" annoyed me so much. Like, bro, I get it. Please stop.

I liked seeing how Ryan interacted with the side characters, but sometimes I found myself getting annoyed at how he treated them. His little tidbits with Chas and JP just, ugh. And I couldn't care less for the romance he had with Annie. I really liked Joey, though. He was such a nice character and I loved him and Ryan being friends.

So, this book didn't really have much plot to it. It was a string of events connected together throughout Ryan's junior year that made it to be a light and hilarious read. Or so I thought. I was so sure i was going to give this book a 3.5/5 rating, but the ending ruined that. It threw me off and left me feeling confused. I was not expecting such a heavy and dark ending for what seemed like a light read.

I hope I didn't spoil too much.

I'm going to sign off with some lines I found really funny.

"What a cruel deal it is to have been born with testicles, and to have to carry them around along with me on my miserable path through life. They may just as well have been the size of Volkswagens for the burden they had become."
"Ned shrieked again. It was a good one, too. Probably a solid fifteen seconds. And it was so high pitched that I'm pretty sure a pod or two of migrating whales in the Pacific veered off course for a minute, paused and looked landward, and knew exactly where that hundred-and-fifty-year-old asshole was, even if Joey and I didn't."

Omelette out.