Neil Smith (2) (1964–)

When Oliver "Boo" Dalyymple wakes up in a "heaven" called Town, the 13-year-old thinks he died from the hole in his heart in the hallway of his middle school. But soon after arriving at the place reserved for 13-year-olds who have passed, Boo discovers he's a 'gommer', a kid who was murdered and that his killer may very well be in this heaven. With the help of Johnny, a classmate who was killed at the same school, Thelma, a 'Do-Gooder' Oliver meets when he first arrives in Town, and Ester, a 'Do-Gooder' in training, Oliver sets out to track down the mysterious Gunboy.

Written as letters to his parents, Boo tells them about his heavenly adventures as he forms friendships for the first time, learns about forgiveness, and makes peace with the boy he once was.

Boo is one of those books I've had on my TBR shelf for years that, through all the weeding I have done with that shelf, I knew I would want to read it. I'm glad I kept it because it's easily become one of my favorite books.

I will be honest and say I wasn't sure about Oliver/Boo and if I would like this at the beginning. Super smart teenagers almost always come across as too cocky for me to care. I'm not entirely sure when my feelings switched and I did a 180, but it wasn't very far into the novel (pretty sure it was a page after the thought that I might not enjoy this ran across my mind). Boo has become one of my favorite characters and his story is one that will stay with me.

Boo and Johnny's journey kept me interested throughout the whole thing. Boo's voice and his little inputs to his Mother and Father would almost always make me smile.

Though the characters are all thirteen-year-olds, I don't know if I would see myself as categorizing this as young adult... it just didn't really feel like your typical YA. It's for sure a coming-of-age type of story, but I would just put this as regular fiction that would also appeal to teens.… (plus d'informations)

This was a really tough book to read. I didn't realize it would be, at first. I wanted to give it four stars, but in the end came down to three, mainly for two reasons:

1 - The language felt very stilted. I realize that the narrator, Boo, was a nerdy little kid and the way he spoke was part of the characterization, but again, it felt a little too stiff, formal, and stilted to me. I think that probably contributed to the 1 star reviews saying the book was boring.

2 - The beginning of the book was interesting. But from around the time that Boo, Johnny, Thelma, and Esther set off to look for Gunboy, it kind of lagged. That journey wasn't boring, necessarily, but those weren't the book's strongest scenes, especially compared to the last hundred-ish pages.

However, there were some really great things going on in this book.

I loved that the buildings and streets in Town were named after literary characters, although I had to look up more of them than I'm comfortable admitting!

The "bricking" was abhorrent. I don't understand the real workings of Town (I guess no one does) and why "Zig" would've allowed that to (almost) happen, but it was incredibly disturbing.

I absolutely loved the last section of the book, particularly Boo's haunting and discovery of what really happened. It was awful and tragic and terrible. I know this book will stay with me for a long time.


… (plus d'informations)