What a shame it is that this author passed away. This book could have easily become a beloved series. It captures the youth of this realistic non-cookie-cutter teenage boy so perfectly. He's an outcast, someone who doesn't fit into any of the cliques. His parents are divorced, and both dating their divorce attorneys (hilarious, by the way). And all he wants to do is create characters for a role-playing game (which he's never played, because he has no one to play with him). That alone makes this book remarkable and moving. BUT IT GOES ON! In today's fiction market, there's a category called magical realism. What Ned Vizzini has done with this book is give the reader Fantasy Realism! (Yes, that's an exclamation point. And honestly, this book does it so well that I'm going to leave three more here just because that's how I really feel. !!! ) For my fellow Harry Potter fans-- Imagine if you found a portkey and it took you to Diagon Alley. That's basically the idea here. Oh, and then you'd have to escape some evil wizards to get back. And then deal with dating and dances as a teenager attempting those things for the first time. And your world would be different, but you're the only one who would know. And then more stuff would happen to make this even more "epic" yet. Yes, that's a way to describe this book. If you read or write fantasy, if you've ever felt like you didn't belong to ANY of the available groups or cliques, or if you enjoy tabletop RPG -- go, read this book. Now. Seriously. You're welcome
