I really liked this book and would recommend it to others. It's a short read that made me think about how others see the world, which led to me thinking about how I see the world. I'm not ready to give away spoilers as I don't want to ruin the book for anyone, so just give it a go! ( )

*I won this ARC copy via goodreads.*
4.5 Stars
While recovering from brain surgery twelve year old Alex starts to take notice that the people around him are acting more strangely than usual. Written in stream of consciousness this novel follows Alex through his investigations not only of people but also of life in general. Between his father’s Thursday night disappearances and his mother’s mysterious darkroom Alex finds that sometimes it’s not always easy to accept the truth.
First of all I will say that even after waiting a bit I am still on the fence between four and five stars. I won’t even mention what I didn’t like because I may after more time decide it wasn’t worth pondering at all. This is another one of those books that got me researching the facts tossed here and there throughout so I learned a few things and that’s always exciting for me. I even bothered my husband endlessly and he will be so relieved that I finished it. The humor is abundant enough to balance the rough spots which only made this book better. I recommend this novel wholeheartedly as it has something for everyone.
P.S. I do think it’s important to mention that even though this is a coming of age type of plot there are some very mature topics in which I have seen other reviewers mention. Yes, I was shocked by some things but I have heard and seen worse on animated television shows. ( )

One teenage boy, one brain tumor, and lots of strange things happening since his surgery - that's what Alex's life is like right now. In this very funny but uniquely bittersweet novel we see the world through his eyes.

I have to admit that I found it difficult to review this book. On the one hand, I want to make sure that I can get across just how special I found this novel. On the other hand, if I say too much, I might be including some spoilers. Let's just say that Matt Greene has given us a very unique story with a lovable protagonist who will take you on a weird and wonderful ride with his life and medical condition. I sincerely recommend this book and give it a solid four out of five stars.

You can read my full review here... ( )

Alex Graham, 13, is the precocious narrator of this novel. Recovering from brain surgery because of a tumour which caused him to suffer from seizures, he sets out to play detective and investigate the state of his parents’ marriage. (“It can be helpful to use the word state when describing a marriage because it makes you think of the people involved as particles. Right now Mum and Dad’s marriage is a gas.”) Alex suspects a divorce is imminent because they have been behaving strangely; his hypothesis is supported by his friend, Chloe Gower, who speaks with the voice of experience when it comes to parental divorce.

Besides his parents and their behaviour, Alex also has other concerns. For example, his hamster is also behaving peculiarly. And then there’s his growing interest in sex: “Sex is one of the things I know least about, and every day it gets worse. You know how they say the universe is expanding? That’s how it is with sex at our school. Every day there’s something new that I didn’t even know I didn’t know about.”

The narrative is rather rambling. Alex constantly goes off on tangents and tangents within tangents. For instance, he explains why his hamster is named Jaws 2: “(He isn’t named after the film Jaws 2, which I’ve never seen, but he is my second hamster and the first one was Jaws 1 (although at the time I only called him Jaws, because I didn’t know he was going to die and be replaced. (In History one time they gave us a newspaper cutting that was meant to be from 1916 and we had to figure out whether it was genuine or fake, and I knew it was fake straight away because they called it the First World War, which didn’t make sense because they wouldn’t have known that there’d be Second World War (which is why at the time they called it The Great War).)).)” The problem is that the actual events of the plot can get lost amidst all the parentheses which Alex so favours. At times, the narrative is close to stream-of-consciousness and that adds to the confusion. Because we are given the world only through Alex’s eyes, the reader can sometimes feel as disoriented as Alex after a seizure.

It is Alex’s character that is the main attraction in the book. He is very curious and has a wide range of interests as evidenced in his To Google list which features such subjects as The Dow Jones Index, The Rhythm Method, The Daytona 500, The Birmingham 6, The Aurora Borealis, The Bay of Pigs, Pig Latin, New Radicals, Free Radicals, Double Penetration, Tennis Elbow, The Ottoman Empire, and Hamid Karzai.
Perhaps the best description of his personality is given by his teachers who, when asked for a referral, “spoke to the keen interest and intellectual curiosity that he bought to the classroom. His written work was described as imaginative, fiercely logical, strongly argued, lucid, and unwaveringly grammatical. His command of concepts was confident and advanced.” Alex is very knowledgeable about certain topics; for instance, he is an expert on tautologies and etymology. Alex, however, is not perfect. When preparing for a math exam, he describes himself as “supremely confident (because Maths doesn’t require what the school counselor calls Emotional Intelligence, hence the expression Safety in Numbers)”. It is this emotional intelligence that he lacks. As a result, he often misinterprets people’s motivations.

Because Alex does not understand everything, he qualifies as an unreliable narrator. The reader’s interpretation of events will not always correspond with Alex’s, and this uncertainty adds interest to the experience of reading this book. Emotionally, Alex behaves very much like a thirteen-year-old boy, although his credibility is sometimes called into question when he demonstrates expertise in such a wide range of subjects.

Anyone who enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon will like this novel. The quirky narration, the touches of humour, and the realistic portrayal of the emotional life of a male teenager are certainly strong elements of this book.

Note: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. ( )

Ostrich by Matt Greene is a blunt book about the different ways one person can feel ostracised (hence the title) through the eyes of a twelve year old boy.

First Paragraph:

"I can tell my parents are unhappy by the way they smile at waiters. In that small act of ingratiation I can see the custody battle to come. It won't be fought in the courtroom but in HMV and Game. Stocks in Nintendo will soar as my affections are auctioned off to the highest bidder. My teeth will rot."

PLOT

Alex is an "almost thirteen" year old boy, though his mind seems much older. In his own words, he is a "worldy and cynical" person. Alex is different. Not just in any of the usual ways (though he is some of those too). Alex has a brain tumour. If the school grapevine wasn't enough to get the info around, the shaved head is.

But for all Alex's 'cynicism', he is quite an optimistic, young boy. His surgery is scheduled and soon he hopes to be on the road to recovery. Not just for himself, but for those around him too. If the first paragraph didn't tip you off, Alex's parents' marriage has hit a snag. The stress of daily life, added to the stress of Alex's condition, has taken its toll on them, leaving him on the outside as they 'politely' squabble the days away. But is that all there is to it? What exactly is going on with his parents' marriage?

REVIEW

It's a little hard to pinpoint what this book is about, because it's not really about anything. It's more Alex's observations and perceptions of the world around him. It's a little slice-of-life, coming-of-age, with Alex's illness and the way it affects not just him, but those around him adding a darker tone to the story.

There are a lot of off-topics mentioned in this book, that most people tiptoe around. Here, they are laid bare. From religion, sexuality, terrorism, illness, bullying, racism, puberty, divorce, depression and many others, this book incorporates a lot of big issues, some more 'controversial' than others. Some are only briefly mentioned (with a passing comment) and some are the basis for the entire story. All are spoken of bluntly, viewed through the eyes of a boy who doesn't necessarily even understand them. Satire is woven through almost every page, with keen quips at the world around us.

The writing is without a doubt the strongest element. The wordplay is incredibly clever, and the way the author manipulates the language is a treat. I wouldn't say this is a funny book, but I would say it was witty- which is much the same thing, but requires more intelligence.

I adore Alex himself. A dead-pan, incredibly smart main character. He's bright, friendly, funny, but also damaged- as can be expected. A very inquisitive boy, he's filled with the 'wonder of the world' and feels the need to explain his newest discoveries of what is mostly useless trivia (though sometimes subtly relevant) to his readers. His tumour causes 'absences' (literal blackout periods for him, that look normal to others), causing him to become incredibly perceptive, so he's very good at noticing things other people would miss. And how much do I love him for having a 'To Google' list?

As for his explanations? They are basically tangents, though interesting and entertaining (for the most part). Their nature and use are a little reminiscent of the excerpts from the Guide in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. On the whole irrelevant, but enjoyably odd and sometimes quite apt.

At its core, this is a story about how the people in our lives affect us, especially when we're young and still becoming people ourselves. Alex embarks on a mission to find the truth about his parents not because he wants to know, but because he needs to. They say 'the truth will set you free'. Though in my experience, that is highly dependant on the particular truth in question. While some may 'set you free', others hit you in the gut, stealing your breath away and leaving you gasping in a heap on the floor and remembering another idiom- 'ignorance is bliss'.

I won't say anything about the ending- not one thing. There is nothing I could say that would describe it well enough, without giving anything away. It can be a little confusing, and a little ambiguous or perfectly clear depending on your interpretation of it. In my opinion, exactly what happened is unclear, but definite- in that I know what happened, but I don't know how or why. I can make educated guesses, but that's all they'd be.

I could tell you how the ending made me feel, but that in itself would be a spoiler. If I told you it made me happy, you could guess it was too. If I told you it broke my heart, you could guess the nature of that ending. If I told you it completed me, you'd probably think I was a little obsessed. If I told you it was all three, you'd be confused. So really, I can't tell you anything. How did it make me feel? The answer is obvious isn't it? It made me feel the way it made me feel. Nothing more, nothing less.

Was it the perfect ending to the book? No. I'd like to say it was a very good ending, and one befitting the story, but this is one of those stories that will be undeniably personal. For the most part people react in similar ways to an ending. This story however, it's anybody's guess how an individual will take it.

Personally, I loved this book. The down-to-earth reality, the feeling that everything has a consequence, kept light and funny through Alex's unintentional (mostly) humour. However, this is a love it/hate it book. Which side you're on will vary according to you.

I wanted to briefly mention one thing. This book has been compared to "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", but I'm not going to do that because I want you to go into this book with no preconceptions about it. Don't think about what you think it will be, just read it. Don't think about it in terms of other stories, just think about it. In my opinion, there's no faster way of ruining something than to go into it believing it to be something else. A perfect example? Going to a movie based on a book you love. You spend the entire time complaining about what they did differently. I learnt long ago that the secret to enjoying things with similarities, is to completely forget they have any relevance to each other. Oh and fyi, while I would say the above books mentioned have similarities (what doesn't), I wouldn't necessarily say they were anything alike. I don't like this book because it reminds me of something else, I like this book for itself.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy of this book through a giveaway. This is not a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% my own. ( )