Review: e. lockhart – fly on the wall

fly on the wall
e. lockhart

Everyone is different, or pretends to be different at Gretchen’s high school. Gretchen herself feels ordinary, and doesn’t know how to talk to boys. A misguided wish to be a fly on the wall of the boys’ lockerroom means that she’s going to learn more about boys than ever before.

I hated Gretchen’s inner monologue. I hated it when she was human and it interfered with me actually being able to grasp the situation around her. Things were slightly better when she was a fly, because she tended to have fully coherent thoughts, but it was still painful.

Boys have gherkins, girls have biscuits? Seriously. She’s going to spend a week checking out ‘gherkins’, she might as well call them penises. If you’re an artist, you should be ok with that! Maybe it was some sort of cute high school quirk, but I wouldn’t pick gherkins any day of the week.

So maybe this is entirely a huge teenage romance, and it’s cool that nothing else goes on, but I wanted more substance. Who cares about her grades? Who cares about her parents? Who cares about any of this? It’s all about those cute boys she’s giving ratings to their asses.

GoodReads is split on the verdict about this novel. I’m weighing in with 2 stars. It’s readable, but seriously don’t waste your time on it.