| Title | : | Goth Girl Rising (The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0547076649 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780547076645 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 390 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2009 |
Goth Girl Rising (The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, #2) Reviews
-
I know, I know. I've read two books by Barry Lyga at this point and deemed them both misogynistic. So I should stop! YES. But he read a passage from this at a reading I attended (not on purpose - I was there to see someone else) and at the time I thought, OK, maybe he figured out how to write from a girl POV without being, you know, so women-hatey.
But then I read two of his books. I had a bad feeling. But I had to find out for sure. No. Lyga has no idea about women. I could knock this thing apart and tell you all the various ways in which it sucks (I mean, ugh, is it necessary to tell us that ever since Fanboy's mom decided to stay home with her baby she's been tons happier?) but I think ultimately what I find the most telling is that threaded throughout Fanboy and Goth Girl was the idea that Fanboy had really effed up by writing a book about a woman but not thinking about her inner life. Amazing that then Lyga wrote a book about a young woman and made her inner life the stuff of stereotypical middle-aged heterosexual male fantasies.
I kept trying to put it down, but, goddamn, Lyga is good at storytelling, and he does really cool things with structure I wish I could master myself. He is a good writer. I just wish he could give women a fair shake. We deserve it.
(read: 18) -
In the voice of Kyra, AKA Goth Girl: Geez, Barry you had this like totally awesome character in Fanboy and he was cool and sweet and awkward and I liked him, well not like like, but you know he was a cool character that I could get into and then you have to eff it up with this story about this totally angry chick who isn't so much a real girl as much as a girl the way a guy thinks a girl is. I get that teenage girls are angry and narcissistic and way harder to write than guys but I like totally hated her and didn't really care what happened to her. I just wanted Fanboy back.
-
Barry Lyga impressed the fuck out of me with
Boy Toy and amused me with
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl so I was relatively excited to see this sequel that I must have somehow overlooked during my Lyga-mania stage.
Relatively Excited…. That usually isn’t a great state. I mean, super-excited, or moderately interested and there’s that chance of being bowled over or pissed off. Relatively excited usually leads to ‘meh’.
And meh (which is so 'meh' to say now, maybe I should try 'derp')it is.
I don’t know… maybe it’s just that I’m old (I’ve said this in so many reviews now… you’d think I’d just accept and move on, but noooooooo)---I’ve been there done that with this story. Hell, I lived it. Okay, not the mental institution or the suicide attempt but most definitely the BoD (Bangs of Doom) and the goth (or post-goth—whatever she calls it to get to sleep at night) and above all, I’ve done the Mom-dying-of-Cancer-routine.
I felt cheated. I wished that Barry had given Kyra a more original voice. I wish that the formula weren’t so formulaic and that there wasn’t the happy ending that is supposed to still be a big ol’ fuck you to society. Teen angst, Smiths style. Yawn.
I do have to admit that there was one little light bulb moment… In today’s anti-depressant ridden society it’s interesting to think back to that old idiom and how positively appropriate it is now. Accept your punishment---take your medicine. HA!
It might also be meh because well, it so belittles that time in my life. No one takes that seriously… hiding behind your bangs, wearing clothes that make other people stay away from you because, frankly, you want to be left alone. The confusion that is misplaced anger and total self-absorption. It seems trite when you can look down the barrel 20 years.. It was supposed to be more important than that.
“People think I’m a goth. But I’m not. I’m post-goth. I hang out with goths and they think they get me but they really don’t. But they’re the closest thing I’ve got to people who do get me, so I stick with them.
See, goth was originally all about rebelling and being different. You’d be lucky to see two or three goths together at once (ed. Note: TRUTH) Now they’re everywhere. There are, like, stores and stuff that cater to them. There’s a website I found once that even does date matching for goths. Bakeries that make cakes with black icing…
It’s all mainstream.
That’s what I hate about this world: It takes everything unique and cool and interesting and makes it mainstream. There’s an effing TV channel for everything. A website for everything. A section of the bookstore for everything.
I want to yell. I want to scream to the world: THIS IS NOT SOMETHING FOR YOU TO MARKET! THIS IS NOT SOMETHING FOR YOU TO SELL! THIS IS MY LIFE! THIS IS HOW I FEEL!
There’s no room left to be an individual. Everyone’s part of a group. And it sucks."
Yay, Barry, yay. Except that I’m sure there’s a t-shirt and a scene from Reality Bites that mimics this. Turn it up a notch, kay? -
This was not as good as the original. It was too long, there wasn't enough Fanboy, and Kyra wasn't as smart as she used to be.
I think Fanboy and Goth Girl needed a sequel, but not because the fans convinced Barry Lyga to write one. It should have come naturally. This whole book could have been compressed into fifty pages, then we could have had the rest of the story devoted to Kyra's growth as a character. As it stands, this is 400 pages of rage and self-hate.
Also, since I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman, I didn't get the Sandman references.
However, the poem was nice. It reminded me of the poem in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. -
-
Sigh. Well, I didn't love this one. I wanted to, I really did, but it was so much like
The Catcher in the Rye in that it was a bunch of angsty whining and bitching about every. single. thing.
I honestly read this because I LOVED
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl so much, and I wanted to know that third thing so so baddddd it wasn't even funny. I knew that it would be a long shot that I would find out in this book considering that it was told through Kyra's eyes, but I wanted their story to continue too.
Barry Lyga unfortunately does not understand women, or teenage girls for that matter, AT ALL. Sorry, Barry, but we do not think about our boobs, cramps, and lesbianism every single second of the day. Kinda sad that this is what men must think? It's so far from the inner thoughts of a typical teenage girl. I understand that Kyra isn't typical, but it was so clearly the views of what a man thinks a teenage girl's thoughts are. I loved the real insecurities of Fanboy in the first novel, and Barry Lyga usually hits it dead on with making the inner turmoil of characters feel so real and raw. This book was just a major fail on that part. MAJOR!
So in this book we start six months later and Kyra is being let out of a mental hospital. She quickly becomes really pissed at Fanboy who seems to have forgotten her while she was gone and sort of has become popular too which is the twist in the knife in her back.
As a reader, Fanboy really had changed SO MUCH in the six months between the books and I was dying, just dying, to be back in his head for a little while. I so wanted this to be about Fanboy again.
So anyway, she hatches this plan of revenge, but the worst part about this WHOLE story is that Fanboy is so painfully nice to her and yet she still has this evil plan the whole time and you just want to slap her so friggin bad!
If you read The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, yeah, you should read this still. The ending to the story made it worth while if you find yourself attached to the characters. I was THIS close to giving this book 3 stars because .
I loved that there was crossover between this book and
Boy Toy again. I'm really interested to know if his other novels will continue to do that as well.
I found out at the end of this book that Goth Girl Rising was more of an afterthought because so many fans of the first book had written emails wanting the story to continue. That made a lot of sense to me because, like I said in
my review of the first book, it felt like a complete story even though there was some open ended aspects to it. It felt purposely open ended. So you definitely can read the first book without reading this one after it, but if you're like me and you just got attached to the characters, you'll probably stick it out through this one. It won't be a total waste, but it's no where near the level of the first story. -
Time is a funny thing in the hospital. Especially in the mental ward. You lose track of it easily. When Kyra, otherwise known as Goth Girl, is finally released from the Maryland Mental Health Unit after six long months, she is ready to pick up right where she left off.
She's ready to make up with Fanboy and continue helping him with his graphic novel. He might have been a jerk and it might have been his fault that she got committed again. But Fanboy might be the only person who really understands her just as she is, and that's worth something.
Except a lot can change in six months. Especially outside of the mental ward. When Kyra returns to Brookdale she expects everything to be the same. But nothing is.
Her goth friends Simone and Jecca don't seem quite so interesting. Roger isn't the standoffish father he once was. And Fanboy, well, he isn't Fanboy anymore.
Suddenly popular and self-assured, Fanboy has become someone Goth Girl doesn't recognize. Someone who doesn't even need her. Someone who forgot her.
All of Kyra's plans for a grudging reconciliation with Fanboy are soon replaced by frustration, and only one acceptable course of action--to destroy him and all of her other enemies in Goth Girl Rising (2009) by Barry Lyga.
Goth Girl is a complex character whose story was largely up in the air at the end of this book's prequel The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. In addition to explaining what happened to Kyra between books, Lyga provides a window into Kyra's world by narrating Goth Girl Rising in her voice.
Unfortunately, the peripheral characters in this story are not as well-developed. Simone and Jecca especially are not as complex, appearing, by the end of the story, to be more like annoying nuisances than Kyra's best friends.The homoerotic subplot between Jecca and Kyra is also problematic not so much because it's in the book as because it is so scattered and does little to add to the plot or even the character development.
Fanboy and Goth Girl are both, in their own ways, comic book geeks. This book is rife with references to Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series but instead of adding to the story these references feel more like a crutch device filling the pages of this story with explanations of different aspect of Gaiman's work.
Lyga does still manage to tackle some heavy themes effectively here. Kyra's narrative voice rings true as talks through her depression and suicidal thoughts. By the end of Goth Girl Rising readers will understand what Kyra has been through even if they can't quite grasp her rage.
Really, the main problem with this book is that there was not enough Fanboy. Having read about and loved that charming comic geek before, it was disappointing to find him in a relatively small part of Goth Girl Rising as seeing Goth Girl and Fanboy reunited was one of the best parts of this novel.
Possible Pairings: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman, How to Steal a Car by Pete Hautman, Liar by Justine Larbalestier, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga, Boy Toy by Barry Lyga
You can find this review and more on my blog
Miss Print -
This is the sequel to the "Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl". You wouldn't absolutely have to read the first book to understand whats going on in this one, but reading the first book gives you Fanboy's perspective on things and helps this book make a lot more sense. So, I guess I would recommend reading the first book before this one. This was a pretty darn good book by itself. I had a lot of trouble putting it down, Goth Girl is a very engaging character.
After the incident with the bullet in the first book Kyra is sent to a mental ward. This book starts as she is returning back to school from the mental ward. When she returns to life "outside" she is peeved to find out that none of her friends have e-mailed her in the 6 months she was gone. She is especially pissed at Fanboy. When she goes back to school she finds that Fanboy has started publishing his graphic novel "Schemata" in the school newspaper and on top of that people actually like him now. The whole thing makes her even madder and she sets out to plot her revenge against Fanboy.
Overall this book was paced much like the first one. This book is all from Goth Girl's view. Goth Girl spends a lot of time thinking and struggling with her rage throughout this book and dealing with her mother's death. The chapters are interrupted by occasional letters to Neil (Neil Gaiman) where she talks out the things that are bugging her. There are a boatload of references to Neil Gaiman's Sandman in here. I am a huge Gaiman fan so I enjoyed those references. There was also a lot of discussion around what different parts of the Sandman novels actually mean; it makes me want to go back and read them all more carefully to see what I missed.
I thought that this story wasn't quite as good as "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl" in a couple of aspects. Goth Girl spends a lot of the beginning of the book complaining about her big breasts and how people notice them too much. Way too much time is spent on this. I started scanning the parts of the book where she just spends too much time on this. I also thought it took way too long for Goth Girl to come to some of the revelations that she came to; it made her come off as a little dim at parts. I know Fanboy is super smart, but I never thought Goth Girl was stupid and there are parts of this book where she acts pretty stupid (although smarter than her girlfriends).
Still, overall I really enjoyed the story. This is another one of those young adult books that talks about how young adults deal with anger and with the crappy hand that life deals them. I am sure many people can relate to this book. Kids who have lost a close loved one will relate with a lot of the feelings Kyra (Goth Girl) deals with. The thing I love most about this book is that the writing is witty and snappy. This book makes reading about all the heaviness in Kyra's life kind of fun for the most part. I really do enjoy Lyga's writing style.
Will I be reading more Lyga books? Not for a while; just because I prefer fantasy/paranormal books to angst ridden young adult books. I will definitely check out some more of his books when I am in the mood for some more young adult drama. -
Be careful what you wish for...in my review for the Astonishing Adventures of the Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl I wanted to know more about Kyra. This book is the Kyra Show--and it's not exactly easy to watch. This picks up after Kyra's stay at the treatment facility as she's rejoining the high school social scene and reuniting with Fan Boy. Since his tip-off to her dad landed her in treatment and she believes he didn't even try to contact her when she was away, this isn't exactly a happy reunion on her end. All the worse when she finds out he's blossomed in her absence, actually gained a precarious foothold on the ladder of social acceptance and behaving like Cinderella at the ball while she's feeling damaged, rejected, bitter, and not unlike an Ugly Stepsister. As much as you feel for her overall situation though, it's difficult to watch her barrel down her path of revenge and resentment when she's surrounded by people trying in their own imperfect, human ways of trying to help her. Her bereaved dad-desperately, Fan Boy-obliviously, her friends-misguidedly, her teachers-ineffectually. It's especially hard to empathize or even watch her punish her father over and over again in her way of coping with her mother's passing, or condone her plots against Fan Boy (who remains a sympathetic, likable character). Most of all though, it's kind of hard to accept that Lyga, who usually nails the mindset, dialogue, everything--of this demographic so unerringly and doesn't shy away from taking on tough issues and controversy---hangs most of a major plot point on what amounts to an easily cleared up misunderstanding.
For anyone who read the first book, I can't help but think it's just going to feel like too much of a stretch, even given Kyra's almost pathological stubbornness. On the plus side, even a disappointing Lyga novel is still a Lyga novel, and for a teen who has known what's it's like to be so focused on your own self-destruction they're blinded to the hand that's being offered to them--maybe they'll find something to relate to here. -
By the time GOTH GIRL RISING hits the shelves it will have been three years since THE ASTONISHING ADVENTURES OF FANBOY AND GOTH GIRL was published. For those that haven’t read it, do so now! You will probably enjoy GOTH GIRL RISING even without the backstory from TAAFGG, but not nearly as much as you could if you take the time to read it.
Unlike TAAFGG, this story is told from Kyra’s point-of-view. Six-months have passed since the last time we saw her. Because of something that happened at the end of FANBOY, Kyra was sent to stay at the Maryland Mental Health Unit. GOTH GIRL picks up on the day she is released.
Kyra is both relieved and nervous to be going home. Dealing with her father is tough and the thought of going back to school turns her stomach upside down. But, she is excited about one thing and that is seeing Fanboy. Here is a what she is thinking when she is walking into the school her first day back and she is looking for Fanboy. “I feel all light and puffy inside, like someone filled me up with a cloud or something. The Spermling doesn’t bother me. Roger doesn’t bother me. I’m going to find Fanboy and then everything is going to be fine. No wait, that’s wrong. Everything is going to be perfect.” (p. 35)
What Kyra finds is not what she expects and her world is shaken again. She begins to fill her days with plans of revenge and ways to ruin Fanboy. Thoughts of suicide find their way back into her head and she struggles to make it through each day. So many things are confusing: her feelings toward a long time friend, her relationship with her father, the way she feels about her mother’s death, and her plans for Fanboy.
Through letters she writes to her favorite author, Neil Gaiman, Kyra works through her many emotions in an attempt to be satisfied with life. She just can’t decide if it is worth all the trouble. -
Well.
For one thing, this book made me laugh so incredibly hard. I just picked up this book, not knowing there was a first book, but from what I can tell, this really is just a crazy girl.
So, you get out of mental hospital, and a guy doesn't come see you, so you want to ruin his life? Because he didn't call you or come visit you while you were there? Uh huh, go ahead, do that. Let's see what happens, shall we?
Stuff gets more crazy when she finds out her dad forbid him from seeing her! Oh no!
I'm sorry if I offended anyone, but this book disappointed me. -
The seemingly overnight change in fanboy's personality really made for a tough read. You had a once semi interesting character become cam from the first book. Nothing really wrong with him but just not very interesting and very obviously a side character. I understand wanting to shift the perspective over to Kyra but can you truly call it a sequel when the protagonist from the first book doesn't have any real impact until somewhere towards the end?
-
Goth Girl Has a Heart & Fanboy Has a Name!
I started this book right after finishing the first, so I guess Barry Lyga did something right! This one starts six months after the end of the previous installment. Kyra "Goth Girl" Sellers is back after her stay in a psych ward (where her father had sent her, afraid she was going to make her second suicide attempt). One of the first things Kyra wants to do is to check on Fanboy to make sure he's okay, but she is soon angry to discover he's somehow too okay. Suddenly, he's popular! He's been serializing his graphic novel Schemata in the school's literary magazine, and his classmates are loving it. This makes Kyra feel that he forgot all about her--out of sight, out of mind--and she becomes focused on "revenge."
For much of the narrative, I found myself hating Kyra and, in my head, yelling at her just to have a damn conversation with Fanboy. Instead of making a chain of assumptions. But she has to go through a certain journey before she can get there, and I find myself pulling for her to get through all that, because I can see her potential under the rage and lousy attitude.
This book has the sort of short chapters that propel a reader forward. I'd find myself thinking, "Just one more chapter," because the chapter were often around 2.5 chapters. I stayed up way too late a couple of nights reading this. (And as indicated in the title, Fanboy's name finally gets revealed.) I was pleased, for the most part, with the way this book resolved itself; however I kind of wish there were just a few more chapters.
As a side note, I will just point out that Kyra does not quite understand lucid dreams, and I'm not sure if the author intended this, or whether he himself shares that misunderstanding. There is one chapter where Kyra describes a lucid dream, and she notes that in a lucid dream--which is one where the dreamer is aware of dreaming--it is possible to take control of the dream or just let it unfold. But then there are things that happen in the dream that Kyra doesn't expect or necessarily want, and she questions whether she actually does want them--because it's a lucid dream, so she must be controlling what happens. Only that's not true. Having a lucid dream and taking control in the dream are two separate things. The moment you know you're dreaming, you are lucid. But taking control takes certain decisions within your dream world, and it's actually something that may take practice. In case anyone is interested, there are websites devoted to explaining how to develop these skills. (Huge digression over.)
I didn't touch on this with the first book, but I'm not sure why Fanboy is apparently the last person in the world who still uses dial-up and doesn't have a cell phone. -
This book's setting in Brookdale, Maryland, USA. It takes place at South Brook High. The main character is Kyra Sellers. She is around 15 to 16 years old. She smokes and sneaks out of the house constantly. She has cut once in her lifetime;she liked it. She also had tried to commit suicide twice; both failed. She has very low self-esteem but she is proud. She doesn't care about what people say about her. She does what she wants. Her dad doubts her constantly and is very tired of her spontaneous and disrespectful behavior. Her mom died of lung cancer because of smoking when she was around the age of 13. This gave her a reason to what she wants. The conflict begins when Kyra returns from the Maryland Mental Health Unit after trying to commit suicide. Everything is normal when she back her usual black. Her dad is pain in the rear end and her two best friends, Jecca and Simone, are still doing their thing. She was ready to make up with the only person that ever appreciated her, Fanboy (That's not his real name. She calls him that because he fan-girls all over graphic novels and comic books). When she gets to school, she sees him. He has completely changed from a neglected geeky boy to the most popular kid in school. He also posted his secret graphic novel in the school's literary magazine, Literary Paws. When Kyra absorbs this, her anger and thee memories came flooding back. Time for revenge.
I really love this book because it is entertaining and the way the character thinks is clearly shown. This book is not confusing and is very easy to read. It has extensive vocabulary and a great structure. In the book, it's not really feeding into the detailed way of writing. Kyra isn't afraid of anything so there is no "my heart starts beating fast" or "i start to tremble". None of that is in there. I like it that way because it shows how a bad girl behaves, per say, than a girl on an emotional roller coaster. This book wasn't predictable at all. I didn't like the ending because it seemed out of place, like it needed a another piece to it. My favorite part was still the end because we got to learn Fanboy's real name, Don. Some connection I made was with the Prequel The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl and with some people in my life that has gone through the same thing. I rate this 5 stars because it's relatable to the teenage mind and it's really good. A quote from Kyra is, "You can't rely on love. Love will let you down every time. Every. Single. Time.
I don't love Jecca. I don't love Fanboy.
But...
God, the buts in life will kill you absolutely every time, won't they.
I don't love. But I need. I can admit that to myself."
I really love this book and I'm hoping for a Third. XD XP c: -
As I mentioned yesterday, I unequivocally fell in love with Kyra, otherwise known as Goth Girl.
Set six months after The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, Goth Girl Rising joins Kyra as she's wheeled out the door of a mental health unit, six months after being committed. She feels good and is ready to face her life again, until she gets to school where she realises Fanboy has comitted the capital sin, he seems to have forgotten her, and appallingly- gotten popular! So as her fantasies of how her come back was going to go down begins to crumble Kyra takes on her usual no nonsense, angsty outlook, and decides a healthy serving of revenge is in order.
Kyra is one of those spectacular characters who's both difficult and yet so true to herself, you can't dislike her, no matter how hard she tries. She's almost Larry David like in her calling it as she see's it attitude, and she's about as popular for it as he is in Curb your Enthusiasm. Yet some of her insights on sexuality and feminism are so impressive I was hard pressed to believe Barry Lyga came up with them without some serious help. Yet he has always said he didn't do any particular consulting or research to write Kyra. However he's done it, he's managed to grasp some facts about life as a teenage girl that I think is often lost on most teen girls themselves.
It was really refreshing to read a character like hers in YA, so unlike the pretty, flirty, boy crazy girls in so much young adult fiction these days. Kyra has a depth that's unfortunately unusual, and I was both impressed and a little awed by her, not to mention completely enthralled by her story. It's amazing someone so seemingly broken can be a hero in so many ways.
I also really loved that Lyga approached Goth Girl Rising from the opposite view point from The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl. It was really fun to see Fanboy from Goth Girls perspective and to climb inside her head and get a look at what she was thinking. Together they make great bookends for each other, making up this completed story of a time and relationship that is defining for both of them.
Barry Lyga did not originally intend to write Goth Girl Rising, and I can't help but think what a loss that would have been for us the readers. Thank god he fell in love with Kyra the same way the reader does! After reading them together I can't imagine them on their own! -
3.5 Stars
I have to admit I was reluctant to read the sequel to "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl", as I was not a fangirl of the novel myself. However, I was eternally curious, in spite of my criticisms, about Kyra's background.
As the story goes, Kyra/goth girl is out of the mental hospital in which she was placed after Fanboy narc-ed on her for having a bullet. He was afraid she would try to commit suicide, and apparently so was her father.
When Kyra is released she becomes enraged by Fanboy's newfound popularity due to the publication of Schemata, his graphic novel in the school paper. Schemata was his thing with Kyra, something he shared with only her... and he moved on without her. And where is all his newfound confidence from?
Kyra decides she must knock him down a few pegs in revenge for forgetting about her while she was "away". To her surprise nothing is as it was before she left... even her goth friends. And her feelings for Fanboy are even more confusing.
This book is far better written than its predecessor. I was surprised as to how well Kyra was written. I have read reviews claiming Lyga writes women as men would fantasize they are... obsessions with the size of their breasts, sexuality confusion etc. So many girls worry about sex.
I guess everyone is different, because I found this to be very accurate with my own groups of friends and people I knew throughout high school and college. Many girls obsess over their breasts, many girls act slutty for attention. The latter refers to one of Kyra's best friends, Kyra was far more chaste than I expected.
I really enjoyed the romp through Kyra's twisted mind. Yes, I admit she was mostly unlikable as a character, but I still wanted to know her fate. To me that is good writing. When you dislike a character, but still care about them.
The progression of her breakthrough, from the letters to Neil Gaiman, to the mysterious poem about her mother's death, to recollection of the time spent in the mental ward bloomed into a breakthrough, which once again brought a renewed Goth girl to an improved Fanboy (whose name we finally learn).
Give it a shot. -
Warning: do not read this book without reading The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl first.
GOTH GIRL RISING picks up the story right where it left off. At least for Kyra (AKA Goth Girl). Back from her time in the mental hospital and still dealing with her mother's death, she wants nothing more than to get re-connected with Fanboy and her previous life. Unfortunately, Fanboy is not the person he used to be...
My first thought when I started this book was that it felt so good to be back in Brookdale. It was great to see the same characters again, like The Spermling and Cal, and especially great to see the new Fanboy. It was also neat to see things from Kyra's perspective, and the close ties to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series is sure to please many comic book fans.
GOTH GIRL RISING brings a harsh and brutally honest voice from a confused girl. At times she is downright unlikeable, and yet readers will find themselves wanting good things to happen to her. Though this book deals with issues like suicide and the death of a parent, it is also about hope and overcoming the things that can sometimes hold you back. A top notch follow-up from Lyga, and I would love to see more from these characters! -
You know I actually haven't read the first book but when I picked this off the library shelf I knew that I had to read it. The blurb was very interesting and I wondered why it said what it said, I just had to find out more. So I read it and here I am, writing a review.
I feel like this story is sort of about empowering oneself and I know that sounds like a cheesy turn of phrase but it's true. She was standing up for what she believed in and she didn't care what anyone else thought or their opinions about her. I like that no matter what, she told people what they needed to hear even if they thought they weren't ready to hear it and the anger she felt towards everything... I felt like I sort of got it, I mean, I'm not goth or suicidal or anything but I felt like I got all that pent up anger. I found myself sort of nodding and agreeing with certain things that she said and just thinking, "You go girl!" I felt a certain change from some of the other books that I read where the character would just crawl into submission if they were in her place. I liked that she could stand up for herself. That sort of gave me hope that everything would be ok at the end.
It was a great book. -
I LOVED The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl and am happy to be able to immediately jump into this sequel!
[update] I think. Only 15% in and I already want to slap her. (Is it okay to slap fictional characters?) Stupidity just makes me angry. She's not a dumb character, yet she's acting like an idiot. It's kind of shame. I used to have some empathy for this character. Now I'm just "You are an idiot". We'll see how things go. Seriously - this may be one of the dumbest female characters I have ever read. I really WANTED to like her in the last book. But now...I'm still thinkin' about knocking her upside the head with a 2x4. But I DO agree with many of her outlooks on society, image, etc.
I just finished this book and am not sure how I ultimately feel about it. Some keen insights into society and perceptions. And it's made me REALLY want to go back and re-read Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
I'll certainly look for Barry Lyga books in the future. But I'm not sure how I feel about this one. -
Goth Girl comes home. And things are different. Fanboy is different. It's like she never existed. After being shipped away to a mental hospital (her Dad feared another suicide attempt), she couldn't wait to get out, to come back to... to what? When things are different, when he's suddenly different, she remembers something she never completely suppressed: ANGER.
This is Lyga's best book to date. Overcoming a phenomenally repulsive cover, he somehow takes all the right risks and all the worst jokes and pulls it together. Writing from the perspective of Kyra Sellers, a supporting character in Fanboy, Lyga puts a lot of the last book into perspective. Goth Girl, who was as far from likable as she was from vulnerable, transforms into a three dimensional girl who just wins you over. This is not a gentle book, but it's a really beautiful one. Lyga writes the most realistic teens on the market today, and he does it with humor and in this book, a surprising sweetness.
-
Barry Lyga's Goth Girl Rising is the best YA book I've read in a long time. It's been a while since I've been this excited about a book. A sequel of sorts to Fanboy and Goth Girl, this is Kyra's story. The main characters, especially Kyra, are nuanced and complex. I could completely relate to Kyra's motives and behavior, to her fears, her anger, her confusion. In a lesser writer's hands, this kind of angst would be cringe-worthy, but not in Lyga's. I wish I could express how much I needed this book. I wish this book had been around when I was a teen. I also wish I had a handle on all that fancy language from when I was a literature major to properly express my admiration for Barry Lyga's writing. This story resonated with me. Kyra was so real I still expect to see her when I turn a corner.
-
This sequel to The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl doesn’t live up to Lyga’s usual standards, but I’m still glad I read it. In this book, “Fanboy” is a static character, and “Goth Girl” loses her mystery. It simply doesn’t read like a world-class novelist’s work, but instead has the feel of a forced sequel or the diary of an angst-ridden teen. There are many parts that had the flavor of Lyga’s usual insight and brilliant description, such as the scene with Mrs. Powell, but the plot was lacking.
-
I actually enjoyed the first book more, but that may be just because I felt more of a kinship with Fanboy than Goth Girl (His family situation is similar to mine).
Being inside Goth Girl's head was painful and frustrating. Frustrating because I saw a lot of myself in her when I was that age, and I remember how fruitless such anger was in the long-run.
That admission aside, I thought it was very well-done; Lyga really captured the exasperation and helplessness that Goth Girl couldn't escape. -
Goth girl rising is the first book I ever read and all I have to say is BRAVO. It open my eyes to a new begging. Before this book I had no imagination but that was before now I see books in a whole new way. Its about a teen who is undergoing huge situations without a mother and with a dad who does not understand what its like to be a teenager, however the lead character Kyra is far from innocent after all..
There's so much to do to people when you're angry.
Kyra's about to get very busy in this uplifting tale of lust and danger.. -
I read till 46% but I just can't finish this.
I liked the first book but this book is so negative I don't even like Kyra anymore she's mean and selfish in a way weak. She wants to be strong but by trying to be careless she does come over as cold and heartless
She is so mean to her dad, she was mean in way to her mother for getting sick. She is just evil and I see that she is broken but she is sucking the life out of the book.
So I'm sorry Kyra I hope she gets some help and finds a point in her life were she stops blaming her boobs and everyone else for the faults she makes. -
There's no plot. She's pissed off for some dumb reason and plans to lash out but never does. Wears white for whatever reason, shaves her head..*shrugs* and thinks the point of goth is to stand out and be creepy. dad no likely. She talks about how big her boobs are a bunch then it ends and the whole book is a big pile of nothing happening. yet there just HAD to be a sequel to the other book bc that story was just so great... (sarcastic)
-
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel- the author reveals the protagonist's repressed emotions in this sequel which unravel a profusion of events. As this character was more two dimensional in the previous novel, playing more of a dormant role, it was engaging to conjoin these sentiments with her laments of the mothers death. This character is so intrinsically depicted through her narration and subconscious she is almost tangible. Gratifying conclusion, the author leaves you wanting more.
-
If half stars was an option, I would give this book 3.5.
I liked the book, but I felt as though the end was a bit too quick and nicely wrapped. Also, certain characters were simply dressing and had no depth or real purpose. Overall, it is a decent read, and a good follow up to the earlier "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl."
