Boy Proof

By: Cecil Castellucci

Narrated by: Carine Montbertrand

Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Victoria Jurgen, who goes by the name "Egg" after her favorite sci-fi heroine, doesn't have many friends, and definitely doesn't turn the heads of any boys. But she likes it that way. That is until she meets Max, a new kid who might be the only one to really understand her.

©2005 Cecil Castellucci (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"An unusual, successful, appealing effort from first-time novelist Cecil Castellucci." (Kirkus Reviews)
"But this first novel's clipped, funny, first-person, present-tense narrative will grab teens (and not just sf fans) with its romance and the screwball special effects, and with the story of an outsider's struggle both to belong and to be true to herself." (Booklist)

Meh

Its a good first attempt but I didn't enjoy it. The story's description were neat and the character's were interesting in concept but their personalities were too simple. The plot was filled with interesting moments but was a bit tone deaf. Castellucci wrote characters who were mature enough to be social activist and hipsters, which is fine, yet that mature disposition contradicts the plot which hinges on them being emotionally dense and socially awkward teens. It's a complex plot hole but is a plot hole that made me scrunch my face each turn of the plot. I think this is an issue of a writer punching words above their weight class. I wouldn't recommend this book to friends but I will be reading one of Castelucci's future projects to see if they improve.

The narrator is talented does a good job but her performance drove me crazy because she decided to speak with a congested nose for the voice of the romantic interest, so that could just be a "me" thing.

That Narration Though...

The book has a wonderful storyline for teens, but the narration failed to capture the characters' personalities at times. I don't mind when a narrator doesn't want to do voices for each character. But Carine goes back and forth between doing a different voice and not doing a different voice for some characters. It was frustrating in the sense that I couldn't listen to this book and do anything else, because I had to concentrate more to figure out who was talking at times. I had to rewind the book to replay some parts, because where one character was previously pretrade by a certain voice, suddenly their speaking lines were just Carine reading. Oh well. Still a good story.