REVIEW: Fly on the Wall

FLY ON THE WALL
by E. Lockhart


Pages: 182 
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Publication Date: September 8th 2016
ISBN: 9781471406041
Received From:  Hot Key Books

Summary 


At the Manhattan School of Art and Music, where everyone is unique and everyone is 'different', Gretchen Yee feels ordinary. It doesn't help that she's known as the girl who sits alone at lunch, drawing pictures of her favourite superhero, just so she won't have to talk to anyone. Her best (and only real) friend is there for her, but that's only if she's not busy - she's always busy!  
It's no surprise that Gretchen isn't exactly successful in the boy department. Her ex-boyfriend is a cold-fish-sometimes-flirty ex who she can't stop bumping into. Plus, she has a massive crush on a boy named, Titus but is too scared to make the first move. One minute he seems like a sensitive guy, the next, he's a completely different person when he's with his friends. She can't seem to figure boys out! 
Gretchen has one wish: to be a fly on the wall in the boy's locker room. What are boys really like? What do they talk about? 
This is the story of how one girl's wish came true.

Review

Where to start! I honestly don't know how I feel about this book, I mean it had moments that made me laugh but it was strange to say the least!! I've never read an E. Lockhart book before and when Hot Key Books sent it to me I was really excited to see what all the hype was all about. However, as always lets start with the basics.

Fly on the Wall is the story of art student Gretchen Yee as she tries to understand why men are the way they are. In a school where everyone wants to be anything but plain Gretchen finds it hard to be her very ordinary self. Then when her one and only real friend starts to pull away the unimaginable happens and Gretchen's world is flipped upside down as she embarks on the most peculiar week of her life.

Okay so I think this is where I struggle... this is a book about a girl that turns into a fly! A FLY! Not some metaphorical metamorphosis but an actual fly and there isn't any real explanation as to how it happened. I can understand the lead up to it, making an off the bat comment about being a fly on the wall and somehow that becoming a reality but there is no explanation as to how this actually occurred which as a reader kind of annoyed me a bit. If I had been told the HOW the WHY would have had more substance and I wouldn't have anything bad to say about this book!

Which moves me onto the rest of the story. At 24 and a half I still don't understand the male half of our species and I found it an interesting seeing Gretchen study the boys in her school. She starts the book thinking the guys in her class are from another planet but throughout the book she learns they are just the same as us girls, they have their insecurities, their secrets and their very human habits. The situation makes Gretchen softer as a character and by the end I couldn't help but have a soft spot for her.

There are so many moments that made me laugh in Fly on the Wall and I read it in 2 hours. Its easy to read once you get used to the fact capital letters are pretty much redundant to E. Lockhart's writing style and overall it is an interesting read. Yes there was one or two plot flaws that annoyed me but that's purely subjective. Above all else though Fly on the Wall is cleaver! 








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