The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl continues.
And I'm realizing that the author is cheating. Actually, that's unfair, but the word seems still apt. One of the greatest barriers to progressing further with my attempted NaNoWriMo from last November, the one based loosely on my own high school life, was the troublesome use of past and present tense to express events ongoing and instances past. Do I write it all in the here and now? Or do I attempt to cast it all as a reminiscence? Barry Lyga doesn't concern himself with such bothersome troubles. Instead, he barrels head on through the story, keeping it in first person and giving us every moment right as it comes, unapologetically in the present. And when he must take time to delve into a little backstory, he does so through vignetted chapters with appropriate subtitles.
Fortunately, the read is a compelling one. An hour's reading pulled me through a good one-hundred pages, even with occasional interruptions. I should be done with the book within the week. So maybe the immediacy isn't so much of a bad thing.
However, the timing of this selection runs afoul of reality. In light of yesterday's shooting at VT, it is more than a little unsettling to meet the titular Goth Girl then read her exasperated observation of at-school life:
"Sometimes don't you just wish someone would break into school and kill all of them?"