Fly on the Wall

I *loved* this book. I almost didn’t want to read it because the cover made it look kind of silly or frivolous or something. But it wasn’t, not at all. It was fun, but also serious, and felt very real and true and enlightening throughout. The voice was perfect and I was immediately right there in Gretchen’s world and believed everything, including all the stuff she heard/saw in the locker room. I liked the way Lockhart used line breaks throughout to capture the feeling of Gretchen’s thought patterns, and the italics vs. roman for thoughts vs. narrative worked great too. Excellent, excellent read, all around. I hope her other stuff is this good, because now I want to read all of it.

Narrated by Caitlin Greer. Would-be censors alert: A whole chapter describing penises and boys' butts! Gretchen attends an art high school in Manhattan, feeling ordinary and invisible. After she wishes aloud she could be a fly on the wall in the locker room to learn more about what makes boys tick, she wakes up one morning as a fly in said locker room. Of course, the first thing she zooms in on are the boys' privates. The premise of the story is intriguing; most girls do wish they understood why boys are like that and what a great way to spy on them unnoticed. Outside of the metamorphosis, I found this a routine YA novel, standard stuff for the romantically yearning girl, and slow to start. And I wished certain of the boys Gretchen show more spies on would have gotten some comeuppance for their loutish behavior. Gretchen finally gets her man and wins locker-room equality for the girls, but nothing really happens to the gay-bashers and bullies. show less

The observations made by the main character while she was a fly in the boys locker room was disgusting a lot of times. Everyone was obsessed with male body parts. It was literally all anyone would talk about. I actually really really enjoyed the beginning and the end when she was a human but the whole time she was a fly really ruined the book for me. And made it hard for me to continue to like the main character when she was thinking and doing the things she was doing.

It's short, but doesn't have very much plot. It's supposed to be about a girl who Franz Kafka's into a fly, so she can know what boys are really like, what they talk about, what goes on when girls aren't there turning them into monkey-idiots.

The thing is, it doesn't seem like her big problem is understanding boys, but getting people to understand her. She goes to an arts high school where her teacher frowns on her refusal to branch from a comic book style. Her parents spring a divorce on her, then her mom leaves her daughter behind while she goes on a week-long cruise (this makes it convenient to be a fly for a week). She's not boy-crazy, like I'd expect out of a plot like this.

It's decent at learning about the gendered Other, but show more doesn't go as far with the idea as it could and uses too much melodrama. The titular "fly on the wall" literally doesn't leave the locker room, and there is a lot more to teen males than what happens there. It's like studying polar bear behavior only in the zoo. There's a significant portion of the text dedicated to discovering boys' "gherkins". Is this a northeastern thing? I've NEVER heard anyone use the word gherkin, least of all as much as she does.

But it's easy and short. I think you'll get something out of it, as long as you're not looking for much. show less

One of the drawbacks of reading so many books is that I have extremely high standards since I've read some truly excellent pieces of literature...and also some major duds. I say all of this because I read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 2 years ago and so I know she has the capability to write amazing young adult fiction. I chose Fly on the Wall specifically because the review that I heard on BookTube led me to believe that it was a retelling of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and because I had enjoyed Lockhart's previous book. What I didn't expect was for it to be chock full of really explicit sexual content. Why on earth did she have to describe penises in such revealing detail? And why did she keep referring to them as gherkins?! (And show more if I ever hear someone call them that or refer to breasts as biscuits I'm going to slap them across the face.) The main character and the person who we view the story from is named Gretchen Yee and she is the prototypical teenage girl filled with angst. She attends a high school that focuses on the arts and her specialty is drawing comic book style characters (hence the cover imagery). Her obsession with a boy in her school leads her to make a foolhardy wish to be a fly on the wall of the boys locker room so that she can find out how he really thinks about her. (And this is where she begins to ogle the boys as they undress for gym class.) I guess the story is supposed to be a character study or a revelation that what we think we know about people can be turned on its head if we see them at their most vulnerable. However, for me it was a letdown and vaguely nauseating. This was a 0/10 for me and I'll have to give serious thought to reading anything else from this author in the future.

PS There were also a lot of plot holes in the storyline and the ending truly fell flat. show less

E. Lockhart is one of the best young adult novelists writing today. She is somehow able to capture what it is like to be a teenager -- complete with family issues and tension, friendship problems and boy-angst. She writes in a way that is fun, easy to read and humorous. Fly on the Wall is not my favorite of Lockhart, but it is darned good.

Fly on the Wall is a very short book, the audio is only about 5 hours but is superbly done. The setting is New York City and an art based charter school. The main character sees herself like most teenage girls do -- full of flaws. She wonders why her best friend won't call her back and wishes that the boy she likes would notice her. She wants her parents to stay together and stop fighting. And she show more can't figure out how to clean her room.

I went blind into this book, reading it only because it was written by E. Lockhart. But this book has an element of magical realism, somehow, improbably the main character spends a week as a fly on the wall in the boys locker room. The set-up seems crazy, but Lockhart makes it work. The week spent as a fly is surprisingly not gross and Gretchen makes some silly discoveries (hey those cute boys have lots of imperfections too! boys are shy in the locker room too! why do the boys have more space than the girls?)

Fans of realistic (yes, even though she turns into a fly) young adult fiction would enjoy this book. show less

This book does exactly what it states in the back paragraph, and in the title. It's about a girl, and her seeing everything. While there is quite a fantastical aspect to this story that is never ever explained, the fact that this is a novella means that the author presents the subject matter, keeps it tight and then reveals the aftermath. Very little of the actual story makes sense, as in probability, but at the same time, it touches nicely on what it's like to be a teenager, and something I could relate to despite the fact that I haven't been one for over ten years.

The main character Gretchen's thoughts are what drives the entire story forward. It's completely from her perspective, with interwoven direct thoughts slid in there. show more Sometimes the thoughts aren't placed in the perfect spots, as in they detract from what is happening around her, but I tried to forgive this by putting forward the idea that these thoughts are undoubtedly all thought within a few seconds so not enough for the ones she's interacting with to think that there's anything -up-.

The only slight break from it all being from her view is later on when words and actions are being done in front of her without anyone realising she is there. This is where I had a slight problem, as the argument between her best friend and someone else didn't exactly ring true. From what little interaction I had read between her best friend, Katya, and Gretchen, I couldn't exactly see how Katya came to this conclusion, since the actual times they had spent together was minimal. It's explained later why this had to occur, and is part of a plot device, but I would have liked a few more scenes to make this clearer.

This book won't really tax the reader, and is simply a quick story to read. While there is nudity, it is carefully toned down so that while the reader can understand the new understanding Gretchen has of the relationship between boys and girls, and what -she- wants, it is talked about. It's a nice way to introduce the reader to the entire concept of sex, and expectations of sex without going into much detail that it would offend anyone at this stage of their life.

I would definitely recommend this to readers of a younger age than Lockhart's usual readership, so probably about twelve and thirteen. There are mentions of the body parts on both sides, but this is all spoken of using slang making it slightly less frightening for younger teenagers. I wouldn't state that her other books are quite as -gentle- over the subject, so I'd wait a few years before introducing the other books Lockhart has written to anyone of this age.

It's a very good book, and one I would encourage young teeangers all the way up, way past my age, to read. It's a good conversation starter, just to get the reader thinking of what they are going through.

It mentions bullying, friendships, sexual orientation (with a good but believable resolution), self-perception vs. actual perception of your peers, stages of relationships, divorce, dealing with adult situations while a teenager, etc (as I've probably forgotten a few). show less