DNF. Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy! I decided to not to read this one after checking out the reviews for it. Thanks!

For an average high schooler, Paul’s problems are small. His mother is supportive, and he has ready access to porn and weed. When he dates his friend, Roby’s crush, their spat is quickly resolved. When tragedy strikes Paul’s life, he turns to prescription drugs to escape his pain. Soon he is struggling with addiction and lust. Will his life get back on track or will his addiction consume him? Well-crafted and engaging, this first-person narrative holds nothing back. Accurately depicting struggles with addiction and grief, the author realistically portrays Paul’s world. Although some content may be a turnoff for some readers, fans of Ellen Hopkins, realistic fiction, and edgier young adult fiction will want to pick this one up. 
 Please note: This was a complementary review copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No financial compensation was received.

I couldn't read this to the end. I couldn't stand the main character and the story just didn't hold my attention. I wanted to like it, but this book just wasn't for me.

This Boy by Lauren Myracle won't be for everyone, and that's okay. This story is told through the eyes of a typical, white teenage boy who is struggling with addiction and, well, being a typical white teenage boy. His thoughts are unfiltered and will shine a light on things some students may not be willing to talk about. This is definitely something I would keep on my shelf for just the right student.

Walker Books US and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of This Boy. I voluntarily chose to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

This Boy is the story of Paul Walden, an average male teenager with a good sense of humor and a great relationship with his mother. Paul unexpectedly becomes friends with Roby, though their friendship is put to the test because of a young lady that they both like.

The best way that I can describe this book is that Paul spirals out of control and systematically changes his life in a big way. Despite all of the turmoil, anxiety, stress, and emotional swings that Paul exhibits, I never really felt a personal connection with the character or his story. This Boy was written from a teenage boy's perspective, so talk about the opposite gender and about certain body parts is to be expected, but the author wrote about it in a way that seemed to be about shock value. The plot drives the story, with the characters seeming to be reacting to the events as they unfold instead of living them. For these reasons, I would not recommend This Boy to other readers.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the advance reader's copy of this book. It was a quick, easy read about a teenage boy. Even though there is quite a bit of interaction between Paul and his mother, and I am the mother of a teenage boy, the story didn't resonate with me.

I am not quite sure who the target audience of this book is. It's a story about a pervy, juvenile teenage boy who turns into a stoner druggie. Is it targeted to teenage boys? The teenage boys in this novel weren't reading books - they were lusting after girls, playing video games, drinking and doing drugs. And the girls in the book were always just sucking up to the boys. 

In the end, I was left wondering what the actual point of this book was.

There are a lot of deep emotions packed into this quick read. Peer pressure, loss and heartbreak are never easy feelings to embrace and understand. However, the author attempts to bundle this into a “relatable” read while hurling us into Paul’s life with a single mom, struggling to make ends meet post-divorce – it’s a lot to unravel, and not nearly enough pages dedicated to doing so.

The vulgarity of teenage boys’ thoughts and decisions Paul makes are potentially a bit ahead of the reading age this book is likely intended for. It will make readers both blush and shake their head at the decisions Paul and his mother make, swinging readers from hate towards their decisions to compassion in their struggle.

Paul is in his freshman seminar when he realizes that he is nowhere near the top of the food chain.  According to the conversation, he isn’t even an alpha lobster.  That doesn’t bother him, because he has a new friend, Roby, and what more could a young man want?  You are right!  They want a girl too.  Well, Natalia has caught his interest and she doesn’t mind spending time with the two boys.  Will Paul move up in the food chain that is high school?  What actions will Paul be willing to try to feel accepted?

This Boy is a stand-alone coming of age story that will have a very small reading audience.  I usually don’t mind books that are full of boy thoughts and boy humor, but this book just pushed it too far.  I finished the book because I had agreed to review it, but if I hadn’t committed to a review, I would have returned it without finishing.  There will be readers out there who want to know all the sexist and perverted thoughts teenage boys are thinking, so if you do, then this is your book.  If you don’t want to ready about “all that,” then pass this book by.

so i requested this book thinking that it would be interesting a read. i thought it would take about toxic masculinity and maybe to others but not for me. listen i tried with this book. i wanted to dnf it but i read the whole thing because i thought that it would get better but it didn't. it treated most female characters as idiots except for the main character (because of course). this book wasn't good.

This Boy by Lauren Myracle is a story that reminds me of stories like Catcher in the Rye or the Chocolate War. To me, this book gives off the feeling of being read in classrooms like those two other novels. The reason I think that is because it tells such a genuine and authentic story for straight white boys. 

What impressed me most about this book was the writing style. Many writers (myself included) feel the need to overexplain. We tell instead of show. Myracle never does this in This Boy. Her writing is quick and to the point. Her themes are not over-explained. They're not over-told. We are simply shown. One of my favorite examples of this is the mother's reaction to her son's addiction. So often parents try to solve the problem themselves. It's a basic need to be the person who can help your child, when in reality that doesn't work. This theme was amazing to me because it took the notion of "helicopter parenting" and turned it on it's head. Of course, Paul's mother wanted to help him. She felt ashamed because she didn't notice. This parenting dynamic and theme was my favorite aspect of the book. 

The problem with this book is the reason why it was written. It was written for straight white boys by a straight white woman. The issue here is not that everyone deserves a story including straight white boys. The issue is that this book is on par with Catcher and the Rye. This boy is not a story that was needed. Straight white boys see themselves in literature across the board. Of course the genre is dominated by female characters, but if you look at the most famous books (Harry Potter and Percy Jackson), straight white boys own the narrative. The statistics don’t lie. There are plenty of stories like this out there. The story of addiction and grief of a straight white boy is not more important than that of a black gay boy, but this is the story that was published. 

I guarantee that those stories are out there, waiting to be published, but This Boy is the book that was published. There was nothing unique or special about this book. It read like a story I could read by any white woman or something I could have read that was published 50 years ago. 

I love Catcher and the Rye. I love the Chocolate War. I love the Outsiders. I don’t love This Boy. I liked it because it reminded me of these novels, but I already had four novels that I love. This Boy brought nothing new to the table.

I was drawn into this book right from the beginning lines. The writing was so poetic and beautiful, it had me hooked. The story was simple, noting the life of young boy as he grows. It's the simplicity of life and love that the author tries to portray in this book. 
I loved the friendship tbh. It was fresh and nice to read about. The complexity that arises with falling in love was also beautifully spanned out in the story. The family relations was simple and sweet. 
Telling more about this book would be like revealing much of the story tbh. The climax had be shocked and sad, I definitely did not see it coming. And what followed after that also broke my heart. It was evident that teenagers often fall in the grasp of drugs and alcohol, more so to elevate grief. And the way it was shown in the story - ugly yet full of hope, I loved that. It felt real and honest. The withdrawal symptoms, the craze for it - everything was so scary and yet so real. 
This Boy is a book that is sweet and sad. It's life in stages, as we grow and learn and leave. It's hopeful. I loved this book and would totally recommend. 

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with the e-arc of this book. All views expressed are fully mine.

I DNF this book. I was about 30% of the way in, but nothing was happening and I didn't care about the main character/ narrator. He wasn't captivating or even interesting.

I devoured a Lauren Myracle series when I was in high school, but for some reason had not read her books since. Let's just say - she knows how to write a coming of age story. I could see a lot of my high school self in the main character, Paul, and I found myself really rooting for him, even when he was hitting rock bottom. I had trouble getting into the story at first, but I couldn't put it down. All in all, a quick, engaging read, perfect for getting out of a quarantine reading slump.

This book took a dark twist half way through. 
My thoughts on the first half? Boys are weird. 
My thoughts on the last half? Life can take you on a direction you may not be prepared for, but it's important to know that you're not alone. 

A sweet story about the bonds of friendship and the strength of one self. Loved it. 

Boys are still weird though ...

Posted to Goodreads: Paul Walden is an average freshman in high schooler.  He is just trying to get through the day with his best friend, Roby, and Roby's neighbor, Natalia.  However, as high school progresses Paul makes new friends, fall in love, and after experiencing a tragedy Paul will go down a dark path that he may not be able to come back from.

I liked the idea of this book but it didn't quite work for me.  Myracle follows Paul throughout his entire high school experience which is, I think, the reason the book didn't work.  Paul's story is told in 288 pages which means that we don't get a lot of information about him or his friends.  The story skips from event to event with character development or backstories.  Plus, the events of Paul's senior years felt melodramatic and didn't fit with the rest of the book.  There are glimmers of a great book here but it needed another hundred pages to make me care.

Unfortunately, this book missed the mark for me. I felt that the writing was all over the place, it didn't flow well, and the pacing was off. The characters didn't seem to be very fleshed out at all because I honestly can't recall a single characteristic about any of them, nor could I even remember the main character's name. I appreciate that this book discussed several things that a lot of people in high school deal with, like partying, drug and alcohol use, sex, issues at home, love and heartbreak, issues with friends, etc. I like that this book didn't shy away from more controversial or hard-hitting topics. I don't think this was a bad book, and I know there will be a lot of people that love it, but I think with a little more development of the characters, more fleshed out writing, and maybe just 30 more pages to really avoid some of the pacing issues, it would have been a book I would have enjoyed more. Thank you for the opportunity to read it early.

I love Lauren Myracle. This was a new narrative, it was meaningful and filled with personality. I loved this, it was a bit more of a heavier read but I loved it

WRITING STYLE: 4/5
SUBJECT: 3.5/5
CANDIDNESS: 4.5/5
RELEVANCE: 3.5/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 5/5

Lauren Myracle's new book, "This Boy" is definitely something different. It took me approximately 2 days to finish, my first ARC completed in that amount of time!
I'm a fan of Myracle's work, I've read a few of her works and this book's plot was totally unexpected, in a good way.
The story revolves around young Paul Walden as he navigates life; a relationship with his single mother, his best friend, a girl he is in love with, enemies, all while tackling fashion (and nailing "swag") and school. 

I would say this is a brief coming-of-age story, considering the book begins with Paul being a freshman, up until his final year of high school, but the chapters of each year are maturely and appropriately written.

Paul is a realistic, briefly cliched, Generation Z teenager who is self-absorbed, and his derisive personality is well seasoned with hilarious sarcasm-- he definitely made me laugh, and chuckle, and shake my head. 
He has an interesting, and pleasant relationship with his mother, however, in his later adolescence, he is very disrespectful; swearing, being sarcastic, lying, rude, and repeats major offenses of the F bomb in dialogues. 
It was a bit sour how his mother failed to correct him, but I'm afraid to say it may be an article of accuracy concerning white, American children swearing in front/at their white, American mothers.

The choice of words Paul uses to explain himself are.......... outrageously funny, and extensively suave, in a teenage boy way. 
Sometimes, I did feel a little bit disoriented and confused when Paul used words like 'swag', because that was a popular word among pre-teens during the year of 2010, or so. 
So, it didn't collaborate too well with other words he uses, such as: sus, lit, roast, etc.

The writing style was obscenely perfect for Paul.
I like this book because it made me laugh-- the dialogues among Paul and Roby were honestly funny, and explicitly humorous, at times. 

SPOILER: One thing I disliked about "This Boy": The sudden, nearly-out-of-no-where, devastating death of Roby, his best friend. The story subsided to his death out of nowhere. But, no one is ever warned of an oncoming death. 

HOWEVER, reading this felt like nearly 3 different stories in one; a story of Paul and his best friend, one with his dream-girl, and a final story of depression, grief, and addiction, and how he begins to heal. The story of Paul battling all these different conditions he finds himself in failed to be concise and connected to the rest of the story. 

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, I appreciate it! 

4 OUT OF 5 STARS.

Lauren Miracle is the queen of teen pop culture, and most known for her internet series of books. This Boy seemed like an awfully odd departure for her. For me, it really didn’t work. My main issue with it is it seems like Myracle did a whole lot of research into “teenaged boy.” The main character, Paul, is so unbelievably cliched because of it. A horn dog with an obsession with swag, he has very few redeeming qualities. He makes decisions with little regard for anyone, like when he starts dating a girl his best friend also had a crush on and the proceeds to ghost his best friend for months. I have no problem with a flawed MC - in fact, I love them - but this is just too much. He’s not flawed, he’s unlikable. 

Another key problem is the pacing in this book. The drama around the dating situation takes us about 3/4 of the way through the book. And then, out of left field, tragedy strikes. And then Paul descends into a really bad place and makes terrible decisions that change his life forever. (Except that we don’t really care because we don’t really like Paul, remember). All of this action is stuffed into the last 1/4 of the book. 

I wouldn’t read this one, probably. It’s not worth your time. 
 
Thank you to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.25 Stars

This review is based on an ARC of This Boy which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Candlewick Press/Walker Books US). 

I loved this. I love Lauren Myracle. She will never not wow me with her insight into teenage-dom. I mean, she's been present throughout (and before and after) my growth through my teens, and now, reading this, it's like, Dang, she's still got it! 

Lauren Myracle is ever-aware of the teenage psyche and represents those kids facing the same daily struggle of surviving into adulthood without losing their shit minds. Though the slang and the trends change, Lauren Myracle's knack for connecting to the reader doesn't. 

I am more than a little honored to have received an ARC from one of my favorite authors. I'm also sad and ashamed writing this, because I know that my review can't do This Boy the justice it deserves. I laughed, I cried, I woke my sister up to share a passage that absolutely could not wait until morning. In short, I adored this little adventure with ya boi Paul, and This Boy is a novel that is going to stick with me. 

(Note to the publisher: plz change the spelling of the title to This Boi. I guarantee that you will sell more with that one-letter difference.)