Punkzilla

Adam Rapp hits the nail on the head again with Punkzilla. I wondered if he'd permanently lost his touch with Year of Endless Sorrow, but he's got it back. Punkzilla revists many of the things Rapp has written about in previous books: the military academy, intellectually precocious children, pedophilia, drugs, aimless wandering. The only thing missing were his gorgeous similies and believe me, I felt the loss.

The book consists of a series of letters concerning Jamie "Punkzilla," who went AWOL from a military boarding school about six months ago and has been on the run ever since. Most of them are journal-type letters he's writing to his older brother, but there are also several letters written to Punkzilla by others. The letters aren't show more in chronological order, but they are dated so it's pretty easy to make sense of them. Each letter-writer has a distinctive voice, and though many of them get only one or two letters each, those few pages were enough to very clearly show Punkzilla's relationship with that person. Punkzilla's letter/journals to his brother P seem like something a real fourteen-year-old boy would have written, and his reactions to the events of his cross-country journey and the people he encounters ring true as well.

This book is very bleak and not for the faint of heart, but it's not as dark as many Rapp books and it ends on a hopeful note. I zipped right through it and really enjoyed it. Very much recommended. show less

This was a very gritty read. Punkzilla is a kid named Jamie trying to make his way to Memphis to see his brother before he dies of cancer. The book is written in epistolary. Mostly it's letters that Jamie is writing to Peter but there are also letters from his parents and other brother Edward and a few other select people. He's been living on the streets since he ran away from a military academy his parents sent him to. Neither of the boys get along with their father. When Jamie lives on the streets he steals, attacks people, does drugs and fools around with girls. A lot of this is painful to read about and it feels horrible to watch. However there are shining moments and they are mostly in the form of some of the people he meets. Some show more of the people that offer him rides and help him out are in fact the scum of the earth, pretty much the way you think they would be, but there are also some great people; like Sam, a kid he meets at the bus station after getting jumped in the bathroom. Sam treats the incident as kind of matter of fact but also helps Jamie as much as he can, but in a way that is so natural that you know Sam doesn't even think of it as helping Jamie. I also love getting the extra insight into Sam through his letter to author of the robot invasion book. There is also Lewis the transsexual that gives him a place to crash for a few days and even offers to drive Jamie to Memphis. These characters are what keep this book from being completely dark and terrible. It's these characters that led me to give it an extra star. show less

Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
Told in a series of letters, Punkzilla follows the exploits of fourteen-year-old Jamie, who is taking busses and hitchhiking from Portland, Oregon to Memphis, Tennessee to visit his terminally ill brother. Along the way he meets a series of bizarre characters, some of whom want to help him and some who would rather take advantage of Jamie’s youth and vulnerability out on the road. Jamie also recounts the unpleasant experiences he was subjected to at a military academy and how he went AWOL from there. This edgy novel is not for the faint of heart but is sure to keep adventurous readers turning pages. I saw one review that recommended it for grades ten to twelve and I feel that is accurate. The book would show more definitely receive an R rating if it was turned into a movie. Still, a sex scene between Jamie (nicknamed Punkzilla) and a girl with lupus is done realistically and without sensationalism. Jamie’s interactions and brief friendship with a transsexual part of the way through his gender-changing surgery are also tastefully done. The book does at some times read like a laundry list of the bizarre and seedy, but Jamie and even the most minor characters are portrayed with care and empathy. Highly recommended. show less

One of the best books of 2009. Too bad I didn't get around to reading it until now because I definitely would've fought for it to be included in the Mock Printz.

Rapp has created some amazing and unforgettable characters in this road trip novel. Punkzilla is a 14 year old boy who runs away from military school and starts living his own life. After discovering his brother is dying of cancer, Punkzilla leaves Portland, OR and begins an adventure full of buses, bullies, transgenders and others.

Rapp really knows how to write about those who live on the fringe. The stream-of-consciousness writing is unbelievably honest and gut-wrenching and puts you into the mind of the main character.

I can't recommend this book enough. It's a Diane Arbus show more photo come to life show less

Runaway meets strange cast would be my 2 second plot summary. As Jamie (Punkzilla) weaves his way across the US to get to a dying brother he meets many an odd character and has some bizarre and shocking experiences. Some of these folks befriend him and give him help, others violate his trust, but all of them build a rich story well worth reading. Raap is not for the feint of heart and the dark side of things is rarely hidden behind opaque screens of language, but his books are generally well written and not gratuitous just to be so. This gritty novel is a great read and will leave the reader thinking long after the last page is turned.

14-year-old Jamie -- known as Punkzilla to his friends -- describes his journey from Oregon to Memphis in letters to the dying brother he's on his way to see. Zilla's life has been a banal teen tragedy since his flight from military school; he lives in a Portland flophouse, pays his way with petty scams and pettier theft, and makes life bearable with meth, pot, and huffed glue. When his adult brother writes that he's dying of cancer, Jamie hops a Greyhound. His journey introduces him to people in all their complications: the good, the bad, the confusing, the bathetic. He encounters the woman with the dripping eye, the overly-lucid child who provides him with sympathy when he's mugged in a bus station toilet, and the fatherly man with show more questionable motivations. Some of the people he meets, such as the transgendered Iraq war vet with diabetes, become real people to him. Others remain just a collection of oddities: drivers who pick him up, victims of Zilla's own robberies, or potential sexual exploiters. Zilla's lens on the world is painful, and his isolation painful to inhabit. But though this book lacks surprises, the emotional investment (will he reach his brother in time?) is enough to keep the pages turning. Gritty and inexplicably touching.

13-up. (Casual sex, sexual abuse, casual drug use) show less

Wow. I don't know exactly what I expected when I picked up this book with the idea of giving it to a student, but I will say I was glad I read it before I gave it to her (and I won't be giving it to her any longer).

I taught a whole unit on book banning, so I'm not about to claim this book should be banned. I will say I don't want the potential headache of giving this book to a student. It's an R rated kind of read - it's pretty explicit and it was more surprising because it's published by Candlewick which always just seemed like a slam dunk safe read for tweens. This is definitely NOT a book for tweens. That in of itself isn't always a problem, but I didn't find real literary merit to the work.

More than that, the titular character show more just didn't make sense. How he talked and acted didn't seem to mesh with his upbringing. His love of punk rock didn't seem to link with how he spoke. The non-chronological order of the letters (as in letters he mailed, intended to mail or were mailed to him) also made the story difficult to follow. Punkzilla won at least one award, so others saw something I didn't. I'm wondering if they might have mistaken "edgy" for good. show less