Review
Title: Winger
Author: Andrew Smith
Publication: May 14th 2013 by Simon & Schuster
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover
Genre: YA; Contemporary
Date Read: July 2016
Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.
With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.
Thoughts:
This is one of those books that has been floating around the YA world for some time that I’d never really got around to! I knew that it was well liked, so on a library haul I decided to give it a chance. But alas, it sat in my room until I think I stumbled across some of Grace‘s enthusiasm for it… and because I trust Grace’s opinion (hey just look at Those Girls) I decided to take the leap. I ended up reading most of it this past summer in Minnesota on the lakefront, and I have to say the atmosphere in which you read a book can have slight influence over how you feel about it.
We are introduced to our protagonist, Ryan Dean West, and from the beginning he is such an interesting person I wish that I could meet him in real life! Ryan Dean is a 14 year old guy attending the private boarding school Pine Mountain in Oregon, BUT he’s in his junior year because he’s so smart. It’s no surprise that Ryan Dean struggles a little bit socially, but not in the same way that a social outcast does. I felt as though the journey he goes through with his friends, with his rugby teammates, and with the other upperclassmen that he interacts with echo a very realistic high school experience. Ryan Dean is hilarious, and reading Winger is exactly like being dumped into the head of a 14 year old boy who has no clue what he’s doing.
All of the people in Ryan Dean’s life, from his friends JP and Seanie, to his best friend Annie, to the rugby team like Chas and Joey… EVERYONE in this book had a story. Everyone was thoroughly developed and had a life that didn’t revolve around Ryan Dean (much to his despair lol). I was really impressed with the way that Smith was able to detect a wide array of unique and specific characters. He also managed to make them really funny!!!!
The plot of this novel is a lot more subtle than I think the reader realizes as we travel along. Obviously we’re reading about Ryan Dean’s life, but what we’re really reading about is Ryan Dean’s growth. How he matures in a manner in which by the end he eventually is able to defend himself, to speak his mind romantically, to understand the troubles of friendship and to recognize when some relationships just aren’t salvageable.
The novel is also interspersed with drawings, cartoons, graphs, and instances in which the narration is substituted with screenplay. These elements added immensely to the story as a whole; I felt as though they curated Smith’s message and influenced the way Ryan Dean is interpreted as a character. Additionally, as someone who has lived in the PNW & Seattle, the depictions of this region and city were spot on (research and accuracy is appreciated). Also, for someone who knew next to nothing about rugby before reading this book, I feel as though I learned an awful lot from the way that Smith seamlessly included this aspect into Winger (without making it seem too much like a ~sports~ book).
Final Thoughts:
Winger is heartbreaking. It bursts with every swirling thought and pulsing desire felt by a teenage boy. The magic of being right in Ryan Dean’s head, face to face with his confusion, his pain, his love, and being right along with him as he continues to do a thing he knows is wrong but does it anyway–theres’s nothing like it. Smith has curated a uniquely wonderful, hilarious, and truly special novel that will stick with me, not only for the message we received, but for the way it was told.
Other Opinions:
Lauren | Lauren Reads YA
Bella | Ciao Bella
Jesse | Jesse the Reader
xoxo
