Have you ever dined on an unusual dish that combines seemingly incompatible ingredients, and you lean back totally undecided on whether it’s brilliantly tasty or too strange to be edible? That’s this novel for me.
The three ingredients are humour, serious bullying and magic realism. They’re an uncomfortable mix for me, despite the novel’s great writing.

Maybe it was coincidence that, at this exact second, the thunder cut off mid-rumble. In the sudden silence, the dark skies parted, yanked like curtains to reveal a warm pink dawn beneath.
He stood in front of the class as the bell rang. Despite his manufactured bravado, his knees knocked together with such force, they were in danger of dislocating each other. His tongue felt like an old sock, while his nose gyrated in frantic circles.

Not just good writing, but excellent pacing and crisp, often hilarious dialogue. (Although much of the dialogue is super-nasty, creative insults and barbs.) The author tackles issues of sexuality, race, hazing, violence and family dynamics. These are pretty heavy topics, and the story doesn’t shy away from dealing with them head-on.

“And stop being so afraid,” said Blossom. “Don’t you know that bullies can smell fear? It fuels them. You think it would make them stop, but it doesn’t. It makes them worse.”

But using humour as a major tool to do so? Some teens will get it, will embrace that approach, perhaps will even read the novel because of it and despite the deeper themes. But I kept feeling it was inappropriate, an uneasy mix. I hope I’m wrong. Also, there’s a side character named Winston who is clearly mentally challenged. The fact that much of what’s going on flies right over his head and causes misunderstandings is used as part of the humour. Is this appropriate? And to my mind, the adults in the story were too over-the-top clueless and insensitive.

As for the magic realism component, in which Sully has facial features that keep moving around his face and yet this can’t be seen by others, it’s a good thing there’s an author interview at the back of the book so readers can figure out the metaphor, even if after the fact. It seemed like the novel would have been compelling without that sideshow.

So, overall, it’s worth spooning into, and some will declare it gourmet. I hope so only because we all need humour these days, especially humour that is well done. We also need to talk about the issues tackled. But in the same book? I’ll leave that decision to others.

- P.W.