NOVEMBER 2012 - AudioFile
This coming-of-age story is told in the fresh voice of a 14-year-old boy with Asberger’s syndrome. As he starts high school, Colin faces it all—bullies, teachers, parents, and a kid brother. Some know how to react to him; others, not so much. When something bad happens in school, Colin feels compelled to get to the truth. Jesse Eisenberg barely differentiates supporting characters, but no matter. His tone for Colin is spot-on. Varying between a clipped voice and a monotone, he creates Colin and his world with poignance, insight, and humor. M.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
The screenwriting team behind X-Men: First Class and Thor make their YA debut with the story of a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome solving a crime, a premise that can’t help evoking Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Kids constantly target high school freshman Colin, who struggles to understand their facial expressions or jokes, and who sometimes barks when upset. When a gun goes off in the school cafeteria, Colin uses his considerable observational skills and powers of logic to prove that Wayne, a bully who put Colin’s head in the toilet on the first day of school, wasn’t responsible (when an incredulous Wayne asks Colin why he is helping, Colin simply replies, “You’re innocent”). Through journal entries that begin each chapter and footnotes about everything from genetic chimerism to false dichotomies, readers get a strong sense of how Colin’s brain works. Beyond Colin and his parents, though, the other characters are somewhat flat. Even so, readers will be drawn into the mystery and intrigued by Colin’s vision of the world. Ages 12–up. Agent: Eric Simonoff, William Morris Endeavor. (Nov.)
NOVEMBER 2012 - AudioFile
This coming-of-age story is told in the fresh voice of a 14-year-old boy with Asberger’s syndrome. As he starts high school, Colin faces it all—bullies, teachers, parents, and a kid brother. Some know how to react to him; others, not so much. When something bad happens in school, Colin feels compelled to get to the truth. Jesse Eisenberg barely differentiates supporting characters, but no matter. His tone for Colin is spot-on. Varying between a clipped voice and a monotone, he creates Colin and his world with poignance, insight, and humor. M.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
The subgenre combining sleuthing with characters who have Asperger syndrome gets a new entry offering humor and interesting historical and scientific connections--but the narrative viewpoint drifts unsettlingly. Colin begins high school with a cheat sheet to decipher facial expressions, but he no longer uses a "shadow," an adult to help him navigate the social landscape. The hallway's crowded (Colin hates touch); the bathroom sign is blue (a color he dislikes); and Wayne (who's been bullying him for years) dunks his head in the toilet. As the plot unfolds--bullying, Colin's arithmetical approach to basketball, birthday cake and a real gun going off in the cafeteria--Colin tracks everything in his notebook (facts only). Many entries end with this plan: "Investigate." As a sleuth, Colin's sharply observant, his discoveries impressive. The gun mystery doesn't frighten him: "Wayne Connelly is innocent, and I will prove it. The game is afoot." Disconcertingly, the narrative voice conveys some of Colin's thoughts but also some of his parents' and Wayne's; sometimes it aligns itself with Colin's perspective, sometimes it describes him from the outside ("her irony as lost on Colin as it usually was"). Omniscience is one thing, authorial convenience another. This mobile narrative allegiance makes it hard to pinpoint whether the Asperger humor is from Colin or about him. Entertaining, but confused about its point of view. (Fiction. 11-16)
