You
By
Charles Benoit

Kyle Chase is a loser…in his own mind. He has dropped out…he has made poor choices, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t like the way his parents treat him, he doesn’t respect his teachers, he doesn’t really even like his friends. He knows if he had made other choices he would be in a different school doing very different things. And yet he is not. And there is nothing he can do about it. He has everyone figured out. He has life figured out and he is not able to change anything. He doesn’t know how or even better he knows how and yet he doesn’t want to do anything to change. He appears to be stuck. He gets detention after detention, he doesn’t study, he yearns after a girl named Ashley and does not do anything about it. He wonders when his mom became awkward around him and when his dad began to dislike him. He seems to love his little 5 year old sister. Her innocence and her love for him mean a lot to him. One day he hears his sister tell his mom that when she grows up she wants to be just like Kyle. When his mom responds that she hopes not…Kyle is sad even though he doesn’t want to be.

Then…new student Zack comes into Kyle’s life and nothing will ever be the same again. Zack knows how to find Kyle’s weak spot and use it to his own advantage. This results in a devastating end of this story.

I was really caught up in this story. It is narrated by Kyle. It was heartbreaking. I wondered what I would do if I had known someone like Kyle. He is intelligent, awkward, rebellious…all the things a 15 year old male can be. I don’t know if I would have gone out of my way to talk to him. It seemed as though all he needed was one understanding parent or one teacher he could talk to but all circumstances were against him. He walked alone. His story was so sad. He seemed to not know joy. He did not understand what to do with his tortured anger.

So…how did I feel about this book…I think it is an important book to read.