Reality Boy

by A.S. King

In this fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge, Printz Honor author A.S. King explores the desperate reality of a former child television 'star' struggling to break free of the oppressive anger he's felt since he was five years old. Twelve years later, he's still haunted by his rage-filled youth - which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle - and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts; everyone is just waiting for him to snap. And he's starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that...until he chooses to create possibilities for himself that he never knew he deserved.

• ISBN10: 0316222712
• ISBN13: 9780316222716
• Publish Date: 23 September 2014 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 6 August 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
• Imprint: Little, Brown Young Readers
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[Bianca]

— Good, but my least favorite [a:A.S. King|1651879|A.S. King|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1323437957p2/1651879.jpg] book so far. Centered on a dysfunctional family and the psychological abuse happening within. Such a heavy and disturbing read.

[Angie]

Reality Boy is a hard book to rate and review. I hated every single character and it made me so angry and frustrated. But I didn't hate the book at all. I was more angry for Gerald than anything, because seriously, everybody sucks! I even didn't like him at times! He's just so negative all the dang time, but it's not all his fault. His childhood was horrible. He was on one of those reality shows where they call in a nanny to straighten out problem children. Gerald was that problem child. At least according to his mother. Now at seventeen, he's still known as Crapper, since he pooped on everything on the show. And that makes Gerald angry. Everything makes Gerald angry, but I can't really blame him, since everything in this book made me angry, too.

I wasn't quite sure about Reality Boy in the beginning since there's a lot of talk about poop. But I suppose that's the life Gerald is living, since nobody who knows him can seem to let go of the little boy who pooped on the dining room table, in a fitting room, and in his mother's shoes over ten years ago. This had become what has defined him. But really it was sooo much poop! Like, we get it! He's the Crapper! Can we get to the root of the issue now?! I also got quickly annoyed with how the "nanny"'s accent was written. She's British, but she didn't read as British. I don't even know what kind of accent I was reading her as, but it definitely wasn't British. Random words are exaggerated to show off her Britishness but it didn't work. Maybe that's how she sounded to five year old Gerald, but five year old Gerald is not telling this story! Stating she was British would have been plenty.

Anyway, onto the core of Reality Boy. I hate Gerald's entire family. His mother is the one who wrote to the show for help, since she had an angry little boy on her hands and didn't know what to do. Or really, she didn't want to do anything. She wanted to pass her problem on to someone else. Well, that obviously didn't work, since no one tried to fix the source of Gerald's misbehavior. His oldest sister tried to kill him! Several times! She terrorizes him! Whenever he tells on her, she lies and their mother believes her, and just assumes he's retarded (no I am not joking) even though she slaps her mom around, too! WTF! So, you can see why I was so frustrated reading this story. His mother is a horrid person! I'm sure stuff like this happens in real life, but holy crap, was it hard to read about! Gerald is suffering at the hands of his own sibling, and his mother just doesn't care. And his father isn't totally oblivious, but stays away from it. At least Gerald's other sister managed to escape.

There is a romance in Reality Boy, and yes, I hated her too. Well, hate is probably too strong of a word to describe my feelings toward Hannah. I just really didn't like her, and found her extremely annoying, especially when she starts professing her love for Gerald after like a day. But he's been in love with her from afar too, so I don't know. But she always moping around about how her father works at a junkyard, finding parts for people. Like that's such a huge problem. I know suffering isn't a competition, and your problems are your own, and there was more going on with her. But she really did bring up the "junkman's daughter" thing ALL THE TIME. It was like with the poop. Just shut up already! Gosh!

Reality Boy clearly left an impression on me. I can't say that I liked it, because it's just so infuriating, but I guess it's good that the author managed to get me so involved in Gerald's life. Since like I said earlier, I was more mad for him, rather than mad at the book for being bad or anything, despite my complaints. I'm glad that I read it. I don't know that I could recommend it. It's definitely something different and gets you thinking and maybe super emotionally involved like me. I really don't know. It's just one of those books that's hard to explain.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.