Winger

And then it's always that one word that makes you so different and puts you outside the overlap of everyone else; and that word is so fucking big and loud, it's the only thing anyone ever hears when your name is spoken. And whenever that happens to us, all the other words that make us the same disappear in its shadow.

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!