Freewill

by Chris Lynch

Like the other kids in the wood shop class at his new school, Will finds himself oddly compelled to make wooden totems, yet when he discovers that these creations pop up before and after the suicide of many kids in town, Will wonders what weird forces have a hold of him. Reprint.

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Teen, Mental Health, Contemporary

148 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Chris Lynch is the Printz Honor Award-winning author of several highly acclaimed young adult novels, including KILL SWITCH, ANGRY YOUNG MAN, and INEXCUSABLE, which was a National Book Award finalist and the recipient of six starred reviews. He is also the author of FREEWILL, GOLD DUST, ICEMAN, GYPSY DAVY, and SHADOWBOXER, all ALA Best Books for Young Adults; EXTREME ELVIN WHITECHURCH, and ALL THE OLD HAUNTS.

He holds an M.A. from the writing program at Emerson College. He mentors aspiring writers and continues to work on new literary projects. He lives in Boston and in Scotland.

Reviews

[Emmy Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

What honestly was this book? More importantly, how did this book win ANY kind of award? These are questions that I found myself asking after I finished this 150 page booklet.

I picked this up on my summer vacation to the beach and i was like 'eh why not' Mainly the Pintz Award and the cover art sold the book to me. I knew that John Green had won a Pintz Award for Finding Alaska, (but SOMEHOW not for The Fault in our stars [WTF]) So I picked this baby up. Note to self: READ PART OF THE BOOK IN BOOK STORE.

The grammar & verbiage in this book is SO WEIRD. This is written in SECOND? person? What? Who does that? Apparently Chris Lynch Does that. Why WHY?! Why doesn't EVERYONE just write in third person? I can't stand First person. Well now, guess what, there's something, worse. SECOND PERSON.

YOU, as in, I, as in Will, is the lead character, is me?...What?

Who was the narrator? Who is...WE? (You'll never find out. EVERRR) Further more, we don't ever get a setting. Never! What? I thought this was dystopian for a while, nope. I think its just every day, normal vocational school setting by just 'a beach'

Kids are dying from Suicide. SPOILER ALERT: We NEVER FIND OUT WHY. What? WHAT!? Everything is just like ok in the end because I think Chris Lynch was just done writing?

Here's what I get. I get that, I, Will, was suffering from depression and he, me, was a little bit crazy. I get that he was also the subject of school pranks. (The person in charge of those pranks? We never find out. NO RESOLUTION EVER!) I also get that he was grieving over his father's death and his mothers death.

I did like Angela as a character. She was straight up. I liked that she wasn't white, though, why do all black characters have to be sporty? Why couldn't she be an artist? or be a baker? Why did she have to be a track star? She was like me, (as in positive no nonsense) but no, I was Will cause this was in WEIRD second person writing style. Angela was great and made this 2 stars verses one star.

Look I expect books to have basic things like the following
Backstory
Setting
Characters
Character development and or arch that goes with a reason behind it
Clear dialogue
Clear writing and grammar

Freewill like did not have a lot of the basic things. Because of that, I was soooo confused so I didn't get the POINT of the book. I feel like the POINT could have been so impactful, but I was being a dummy and confused about who was talking, and where we were, and what the back story was. I couldn't keep up.

I didn't get it. You know why? CAUSE IT'S WRITTEN IN CONFUSING AS HELL SECOND PERSON! I just didn't get this book.

Unfortunately. Now, I'm really going to question this, "The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature" from now on = /

[Jason Kurtz · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Freewill” won a Printz Honor award. I understand why, as it is a fine example of what YA writers are trying to do in the genre of fiction for teens. It is written in second person POV. The double meaning of the title, Will (the main character needs to be ‘free’ and the concept that he (Will) is not controlling the fate of the people in the novel, they have ‘free will’ as well. But we in the MFAC writing program cohorts have been talking a lot about plot (this book has a very scant one at that and is much under developed and hole riddled), about timelines and cohesiveness, esp. for teens (this book by and large was one of the most difficult books I have ever read).
Lynch really made me feel like the brain addled character in the novel (interesting to ponder in itself). My lovely wife and I have started discussing how reader response is a extremely valid point of criticism, and we always talk about literary value and personal value (enjoyment, understanding etc.) so this book was difficult to rate for me, because I’d say it has very high literary value, and relatively low personal value. I finished the book unsatisfied, confused, and annoyed. Not the way one wants to feel after reading a YA fiction novel. I would say this book was an honor book because of how it appealed to adults on a literary level.
Overall, I gave it a “medium” rating of three stars. Anyone in a writing program should definitely take a look at “Freewill” but I think is would get a very lukewarm reception from my students. Most teens on Goodreads talk about how they were confused/and or didn’t get it.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book Freewill by Chris Lynch was about this teenage boy who seems to be a loner with a somewhat traumatic background. He lives with his grandparents and goes this school for certain kinds of people. Lynch is very vague throughout the book. Although that characteristic makes you want to read on, it gets slightly aggrivating because there are so many blanks and question marks throughout the book. Anyway, we go through the thoughts of this kid Will and his desire to be a pilot, even though he's in woodshop. His works have this odd significance in deaths/suicides (still unclear to me). He ends up being worshipped as a goth angel of death.

Overall this book was okay. It was really confusing I think mainly because it was in second person and the author kept trying to keep what was going on a mystery. Even after finishing the book I still don't know what exactly happened or understand what happened. It was a very interesting style but I think it didn't exactly fit the character. The 2nd person style made me think that Will was maybe schizophernic or something like other books I've read but it seems that he isn't. It may be just me, but this book was very difficult to understand. There's a lot of internal thinking, character action (mainly things that describe body language) but it never really defined exactly what was going on throughout the book. It may of been to allow room for interpretation, but I feel that it was just loosely written.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is exactly the type of book I would expect to win awards (Printz Honor 2002) and have a 2.86 rating on Goodreads. Brilliant use of language and the second person. A deep dive into grief and mental illness and some of the ways our current system fails in those situations. Deep, but brief, and thus so, so intense. It is also never completely clear; plot is foggy, setting is foggy except for one or two that are eerily focused. This is a character driven book, but the character is unreliable and confused and struggling himself. Brilliant. But I didn't enjoy it a bit. This was not an easy read, or a fun read, or a clear read. I read it quickly, but I'm not altogether sure whether I was engaged, or afraid of what might happen, or just wanted to be done.

[Janie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was boring and confusing. This is the plot as far as I can tell.



1. Will is crazy. His dad drove off the road with his stepmother in the car. They both died. It was probably suicide (consequently murder in the case of his stepmother). He lives with his grandparents now. They are into bocci ball and his Grandfather is more put out that the kid is crazy than his grandmother, who is nice.

2. He is in a woodworking class. He makes beautiful wooden furniture (and says that they aren't his), but he doesn't belong there because he's meant to be a pilot (whatever that means/symbolizes) This pilot obsession is never explained/I don't get it. He also makes strange wooden trinkets that look like penises. He is commissioned to make a knome for his instructor's mom. For some reason. This is a big deal because anything that he makes in the class is school property. So the instructor is a hypocrite.

3. He befriends a strange girl with an inch-thick orange afro name Angela. Well not befriends... he stalks her for a while and she is constantly like "what are you doing stalking me you're crazy!" She later sort of gets used to him sort of.

4. All while this, teens are committing suicide and the Will's penis- looking wood carvings are showing up at the scene (again this is a big deal because the wood works are not allowed to leave the building because they are school property . Some reporter tracks him down and accuses him of starting some sort of cult, "Just tell me the truth before others mangle it you sick crazy fuck!"

5. He gets calls from strange people saying Will is an "Angel" who places the statues and thus people die. They want to know where to place them next, for they follow him. Will tells them to go to hell.

6. Angela shows up at the door with a statue in her hand saying "is this a sick joke?" Will knows nothing about this.

7. Cult crazy calls "She should have been dead by now man. Are you not for real?" Will is like "meet me at the beach".

8. Will makes the Cult guy bury the statue's base in the sand and then drags him out to the water. As if to commit suicide and take the Cult guy with.

9. The Cult guy escapes (I think); Will doesn't actually drown himself (I think), and he goes back to his grandparents' house. THE END

Side notes: I hate second person. It's not "deep"; it's just annoying. And This won a Pulitzer Prize!?!?!?! What on earth for!?!?!? Is it because it's about suicide?

[Seth McDiarmid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book because I was intrigued by its cover.

Yup.

There were several things about it that I enjoyed, though not enough to outweigh the incredibly heavy feeling of hopelessness that its narrator injects into every sentence and was left clinging to me like a co-dependent teenage girl. It left me screaming, "what the heck was the point?" I hesitate to buy into the thought that this was the author's intent, but if it was...genius.

I enjoyed the voice a great deal, though not the tone; it was too Poey for my taste. The use of second-person does seem a bit preachy at times but it's fresh enough to keep the reader engaged, a task made easier by its thankfully short length. I think towards the middle I felt bad enough for the narrator, expecting that he suffered from some sort of anxiety or autism or other socio-psychological disorder, to hope that he would change for the better. But by the end of the novel, I hated him. Thank goodness for Angela, whose final appearance in the book summed up my frustrations nicely and granted me at least a small cathartic respite.

The book was saved from a one-star fate by its brief adventure into the moral ground of choice and accountability, which was by far my favorite part. It is a wonderful, albeit much to short, meander into the question of personal agency: will we act or be acted upon? In this, I felt a fleeting moment of synergy with the author.

That said, the book is well-written and the author's skill at exploring the psyche of his narrator is evident. I'd recommend this to anyone looking to experiment with new narrative perspectives or who just gets a jolly kick out of the hopelessly macabre.

Warning:
Language: Thanks for reminding me. Lots of f-bombs. Seemed unnecessary. Bugged me.
Sex: some vague references. not really.
Drugs: again, references. No abuse.
Rock n Roll: I don't remember. I was too depressed.
Violence: A few death scenes after the fact, and a semi-strangling.

[Conner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short book that can be read in a single sitting, but it can also be pretty emotionally draining. I was a little put-off at first by the odd style of writing; the narrative is done in second person, but I got used to it after a while, and it does well with exhibiting the protagonist's implied schizophrenia. It was unlike any book I have ever read in the way the narrative was presented, the plot is never really explained, the entire narrative takes place in a very surreal way inside the protagonist's head, it's simply put there for you to figure out with a very unique semi-conscious and typically philosophical writing style.

[Christie (The Ludic Reader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will, the seventeen-year-old protagonist of Chris Lynch’s YA novel Freewill has suffered a horrible tragedy. Now he lives with his grandparents who are “Kind people. They didn’t have to take you in. Or did they? Love? Is it love? Charity.”

That’s the first thing about Freewill: it’s written in the second person. Not many books are and I suspect that many YA readers will wonder what the heck is going on. Once Will���s circumstances reveal themselves, readers will likely be able to figure out why Lynch chose this point of view. At the very least, it would be an interesting conversation to have with students. But second person is a stylistic choice and not everyone grooves to it.

Will, as a character, is frustrating and sympathetic. He spends most of his time in woodshop, where he clearly has some talent. He makes furniture and carves little statues which start showing up in advance of the deaths of local students. He doesn’t have any friends until he meets Angela, another misfit in his woodworking class.

Has she spoken to you before? You know her name, though, don’t you? Haven’t bothered knowing any of the others. What’s the use, after all. But you haven’t been able to not know Angela.

The novel works as a sort of interior monologue as Will comes to grips with the facts of his life. He’s stuck in limbo. He tells his teacher “I’m supposed to be a pilot, Mr. Jacks. How did I wind up in woodshop?”

The how reveals itself – sort of – relatively quickly, but Will’s mental health is clearly in jeopardy and it will take a while before the whole thing plays out.

I didn’t love this book, but that doesn’t mean it’s without merit. Mature, patient reads will likely get something from the reading experience.

[libreroaming · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

Freewill is a Printz honor and one of those books that you appreciate what the book is trying to do more than enjoy the execution.

Told in the second person, in a sparse and almost repetitive cadence, the story is about Will, who is disconnected from life and whose only outlet seems to be strange woodwork projects that he doesn't even particularly enjoy. When the wood totems show up in a series of suicides, unwanted attention is drawn to him and he must decide if he should speak up or let himself become part of the nothing he feels he has to live for.

I think Lynch made a lot of smart choices in framing. While many people would find the "you" off-putting, it helps reinforce the reader's own questions. However, Will is still so much a nonentity and passive character that he is neither a proper cypher for the reader to insert their own desires into nor interesting enough to carry the story's odd and morbid tone the way the narrators of Silver Linings Playbook or Perks of Being a Wallflower manage.

The other characters don't work as complex or lively characters either, partially from the remoteness of Will's relationship with them. This leaves most of their discussions feeling like talking points of the plot, anti-suicide PSAs rather than their own motivations.

This novel is not without compelling moments. While the choice to make the prose simple and sparse, Lynch has passages that are vivid. One example that made me take notice was when Will was taking a shower after forgetting clean himself for three days and remarks on the wonderful feeling of scrubbing skin, reminding himself to remember it because it's a nice small pleasure that is easily forgotten.

Unfortunately, the sparseness and the vagueness work against the story more than help it. The mystery of the totems and the suicides are left unresolved or even commented it on, as the story winds off into a palatable non-ending where Will finally makes a choice not to be so passive. I do like an open-endedness to my stories, but there's not enough to structure to make the suggestion of possibilities. On the bright side, the story is a brisk novella more than anything else and there are some passages that create a thoughtful starting point for the weighty topic.

And perhaps that is all that Freewill wanted to do, was to present the reader with a choice to do so...

[Colton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good. Not even close.

The author sets up a really eerie mystery with an amnesiac schizophrenic teenage loser stuck in the middle, yet fails to provide any sort of conclusion to said mystery. I'm fairly certain he just couldn't figure out how to tie all the increasingly bizarre plot points together, so he just had the main character go swimming in the ocean, come to some realization about the meaning of life, and then, bam, the book ends.

The narration is very obnoxious, with the main character having a near-continuous dialogue with the voice in his head. I swear, half the sentences in this book were questions which became very annoying to read. The premise is certainly eerie, but it's so ill-defined that I couldn't be bothered to feel. I felt nothing for any of these characters: not the grandparents, not Angela, not the dead teenagers, and certainly not the main character, Will, who reads like the poster child for the emo movement. He is lazy, whiny, and drives away anyone who tries to get close to him. Most damning of all, though, he is boring. Reading about this jerk was exhausting, and I did not like him at all. I'm totally fine with reading about characters I disagree with or would not be friends with in real life, but this was almost painful.

Lastly, this book elicited not a single emotion from me except anger that I wasted my time. The story was so lifeless and never amounted to anything except bunches of words on a page.

Sorry I didn't like your book, Mr. Lynch. Maybe next time, try to wrap up your story before ending on a big middle-finger to your audience, and create some characters that talk and act like actual people. And, please, no more question marks.

[Falina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this book with the "WTF just happened" feeling common to readers, judging by the other reviews on Goodreads. I'm as guilty as anyone of dismissing books I don't understand as trash (hello, Ulysses) but something about Freewill makes me want to dig deeper and understand. The second person POV didn't bother me and I think was a brilliant choice to enhance the mental confusion that Will feels and the reader shares with him. You are supposed to feel disoriented, because he does. You are supposed to not know what he is responsible for, because that's the central concept Will himself is struggling with. He finally decides (I think?) he isn't responsible for his father's death or for the actions of others, and that's why you never get a conclusion to the bizarre events that take place. It doesn't matter. When he is committing suicide, he finds himself in remembering a grounding fact--that he's a good swimmer. Somehow, by the end of the novel, he has put things into a context that stabilizes him. Accepting the concept of free will frees Will...hence the punny title (I guess Lynch couldn't resist).

Do I get exactly how all of this works? No. Do I think this book would baffle and annoy almost all young adults? Yes. But I am done being annoyed and I'm willing to keep the book (normally I only keep 5 star books) in order to read it a few more times and see if it sinks in. I'm giving it 3 stars because it's
either 1 star or 5 stars and I really can't decide which until I understand it.

[Rhea]

DNF at around 15 pages.

I'm usually a sucker for heavily stylized writing, which is why I'm surprised to say I couldn't get into Freewill's writing at all.

The biggest problem with Freewill's writing is its use of second person. You are a guy named Will, you think and act like Will, you behave like Will, etc. Will is a teen with problems, so he would already be hard to relate to and understand; but now that you are Will, it's not just that you need to hold the picture of Will and the plot in your mind, you also need to imagine being him, changing you identity and personality so that you're this guy named Will.

But then the way Will fits into the story makes the writing even harder to get into; it feels like you're missing something Will knows, which is jarring since, well, you're Will. Add to that the fact that everything is distant and nothing immediate and you have no idea what's going on, and the result is, Freewill is incredibly hard to get into.

As for the idea of the story, it sounds awesome. Explorations of free will? Great! A second-person narrative to make you feel like you don't have any free will? Interesting idea, but I need to feel INVESTED in the story in some way or other. Not by being dragged around blindly.

I'm sorry to say this, but I won't be finishing Freewill.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Will is a tormented teen dealing with the deaths of his father, stepmother, and several classmates in this obtuse story. I remember hearing people talking about this book when it came out, and figured it was worth a read, since it won a Printz honor, and I've liked his other books. When I finished, I had to look at the reviews to figure out what the hell anyone liked about it. The PW review summed up my feelings precisely: "this airless novel does not reward the effort required to penetrate it."

I found the second-person narrative to be a bit off-putting in the beginning, but not insurmountable. The main question posed by the novel, can you ever know what's in the mind of another person, is potentially profound, but the probing here is clumsy and unsatisfying. I found myself hoping that he was a serial killer. THAT would have been much more satisfying; a perfect picture of a truly disturbed individual.

[Mark Flowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was . . . good? I think?

[Breana C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freewill isn’t free, it takes a lot of effort. Will isn’t doing well in high school living with his grandparents since his parents passed away. The title of the book, “Freewill,” states a lot by saying Will wants to be freed by his thoughts, his past, and his life. The book, “Freewill by Chris Lynch” is what Will needed, living with believing he was the cause of his father and stepmother’s death, the mysterious “suicides” and wooden sculptures. He was assigned to a school for children with issues and is now forced to live with his grandparents. He has never been really impressed with anything, anyone, and mainly himself, he feels he makes people “uncomfortable.” Will tends to ponder on the ideas of knowledge, death, suicide, fate versus choice, and the way things are supposed to be.
Will wants things the way they supposed to be, he wants his life “normal.” He doesn’t have much, but he met someone named Angela in woodshop and they connected very well. He likes her disinteresting in pleasing people and her blunt nature. Will is stuck in a woodshop class that he resents, Mr. Jacks, his woodshop teacher, thinks Will’s work is amazing and has lots of potentials. Another girl took her life by drowning and no one really knows if it was suicide and that haunts Will because he says “suicide always involves a gray area.” Then another teenager is discovered, clearly a suicide, according to Will. He then goes to his favorite place, the beach, this place brings him peace, then bothered by his grandfather bothering him by school and life problems. Will asks his grandfather if he can go back into normal school and his grandfather says he needs to be “normal” which baffles Will because “what does that mean.” He continues to wonder when the next suicide in his town will be because everything comes in threes, according to him. He tends to ruminate on his current state, realizing he’s emotionally wrecked. Which makes sense to him due to his past. A theme that keeps coming up with the fact that Will thinks of many concepts and ideas throughout the story.
He reminisces on the concept of the gnomes that Mr. Jacks keeps telling him to make, he suggests that they’re a monument to the meaning of life. He then gets home and didn’t leave his home for 3 days straight, thinking about the concept of death. He comes to the conclusion his grandfather is afraid of feeling and therefore doesn’t attempt to communicate to him about his feelings. Angela then visits him during these three days, worrying about him, he discloses the information about his parent’s mysterious death, his dad drove the road into the water with his stepmother in the car. She then asks questions about this and he says he believes that his father wanted to kill himself and brought his wife with him and that his mother died a year after he was born. They go on a walk and visit the spot where the two teenagers committed suicide and sit there and contemplate life together.
After the next suicide of two more teens, Will talks to many reporters and cops, he is scared now because he thinks they may think of him as suspect due to his wooden sculptures. Out of rage he punches the reporter and runs away, next day having to go to the hospital getting splints and depression medication. He keeps getting constant, creepy calls and the last one, the man on the call wonders why Angela isn’t dead yet. This man has been the one causing all of the suicides and meets Will at the beach and he runs away. Will gets a rush of instant power, goes for a swim, and realizes he is not alone, he is not the cause of the suicides, and is not the cause of his parent’s deaths. He comes back with a changed attitude and admires all of the beautiful work he has done with the wood. I would highly suggest this book for people who love mysterious and empowerment stories. Overall, I would truly rate this book a four out of five stars.

[Jesse Wilkerson]

Have you ever wondered what your purpose in life is? Put yourself in the shoes of Will who is the narrator of the story, where after his dad died in a car crash he didn’t know what to do with himself. He is an average kid from a first look, but has a lot of things going through his mind all the time always overthinking, which is expressed in this book as him talking in second person all the time ,and thinking philosophically. Will doesn’t want to go to school because he feels like it’s pointless, so he ends up making a sculpture. He doesn’t even know what the sculpture is gonna be he just sculpts while thinking about why life is the way it is, debating whether or not people have a freewill, or if your choices don’t matter because everything remains the same in the end.
While he is making this sculpture day by day a suicide happens in the book next to one of Wills unknown sculptures, and the people thought it was a murder. Will was really upset about this incident getting more and more conceited wondering what he was doing with his life. He refuses to go to school after a while because of all the things he's experienced. Will doesn't really talk to anybody other than his new friend that he meets. There ends up being another unsolved death by a beach that Will always hangs out at, specifically right next to another one of the sculptures that he made. He almost gets blamed for the death by a news guy who accuses him of being in a cult. Will does not accept this and ends up fighting him because of it.
In Conclusion, I think that Freewill is a thought provoking, interesting read that you should at least try out because it is pretty different from other books. Will has a lot of good points, also showing how he overcomes his difficulties is cool to see in the end.

[Suziesunshine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book because the second person intrigued me and I thought it was a mystery. I did not really like it. The second person did help me feel like i was in the main characters head, as did the stream of consciousness style, but it also made the book much more difficult to read. I found myself distracted by trying to figure out who was narrating, was it the voice inside wills head? is will schizophrenic? these questions along with others are left unanswered. because i was so dissatisfied with the book I don't know who i would recommend it to.

If i were to use this in a classroom it would have to be with highschoolers who had a high reading level. It could be used to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different points of view. could be used to discuss how trauma can affect young people. I probably wouldn't use this book to teach though.

Language: Lots and lots
Violence: teen suicide, punches a reporter
Rock and Roll: wills father murder his stepmother, cult forms because they think will is a prophet of death, though he claims no such things, phallic shaped statues.
Drugs: grandfather suggests will take more pills than he is prescribed, takes it back.

[AnnaMay Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the book Free Will you have to find out the mystery behind why you can't remember somethings.After a while of looking around asking yourself questions you find out the mystery. I would not recommend this book to anyone under the age of 12 because there are some bad language. I would recommend this book to young Adults looking for a good mystery to solve. Throughout the book you start to ask yourself a lot of unanswered questions that are later answered.

First off if you do read this book read the back first it gives a uneasy feeling about what's around the corner of the book. But the back also tells you a lot more than you would think. The main character Will is not introduced at least that's what you think. You are Will at least in the book you are Will. You have to free Will from not remembering anything. As you get farther in the book you find out the back of the book. And who it is.

[Alexandria Luttke]

Will is struggling to come to terms with his parent's death. Though this book was short, it was an exciting challenge to read. I enjoyed how the author portrayed Will's frantic, deep thoughts throughout the book. To illustrate, when Will is at the beach he hears the water, "simultaneously screaming and whispering to you. It is saying all the names, in all the voices, in angry and sad, and lost and helpless tones. It is saying your name. And your name suddenly sounds like the saddest word you have heard." (Lynch 141-42); Will's thoughts are as disjointed as his actions throughout the book. I feel that anyone who enjoyed reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower would enjoy reading this book. Even though I had to stop and think quite a bit with this slim volume, I'm glad I finished it; the title provides the hope that is felt at the end.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book. A lot of people didn't like it but I think this book was written with a style that not many can do or pull off. It was a little confusing at first but I now love it. The way it was written was art itself. Yes second person is very weird but I found it great because it was like the voice in his head that helped him in some ways. But it was also always questioning him. I liked how it helped him but I loved that it was being told from that pov. I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND this book to people if they are look for an interesting short book to read or just want to see how it is. I am glad that this got an award it definitely deserved it even though it seems like a lot of people didn't like it. Don't degrade any artwork especially if it is something that took risks.

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did spend most of this book extremely confused (second person works sometimes, and I guess it was probably the best choice for this book but like, it was confusing), though I will say Pearl Jam's "Ten" really works as a soundtrack for this book and, to be honest, you can read the whole thing in the duration of the album, so that's nice.

I liked it, though. It took me a while to figure it out, but I liked it. I am pretty much predisposed to like the weird shit like this, and it was... well, I liked it. In a more verbal reason--I did really like Angela, I thought she was fun. And I did like the ending. I liked that scene near the end. It was very visceral.

I dunno. Don't really know what to think of this.

[Ms. Petrillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be quite honest, this book moved too slowly for me. At the point where I started to piece facts about Will's life together, I had stopped feeling any sort of sympathy for his character. I just wasn't invested enough to care.

What I learned about myself from this book is that while I love mystery, I need action-packed mysteries. If I pick up a mystery book, I expect to be in the action, piecing things together along with the narrator or protagonist, rather than struggling to catch on to what the protagonist isn't sharing with me. Maybe if I read it at another time in my life I would have appreciated Will's constant brooding, but at this point Will and I simply did not mesh.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tried too hard. Will recently lost his dad and stepmom in an accident, and there's some question as to whether or not it may have been a murder suicide. Now being raised by his grandparents, he's struggling with grief and not sure where to turn. The fantastical elements of the story (Will's wooden sculptures popping up at suicide spots, teen suicides, etc.) don't blend well with the more realistic parts (Will's friendship, adjusting to a new school). Will also mentions wanting to be a pilot a few times, but nothing gets resolved with that. If the book had just focused on the realistic and not included so many "what ifs," it would have been much stronger.

[Lillian Nemmers · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a really slow and boring book. It's about a boy who thinks he should be a pilot instead of working in a wood shop. There's a girl that he's like obsessed with and he was following around the grocery store. A bunch of teens start to committee "suicide" but are actually being murdered. Will thinks he knows hows murdering everyone. Also whoever murdering these people are taking wood work from the wood shop and putting them at the site. Will's parents also were killed so he lives with his grandparent's.

[Alicia Weaver · Rating 1 out of 5]

What did I just read? 16 year old Will attends a “special school” where he takes woodshop. He claims he is supposed to be a pilot and is in the wrong school. In shop he makes sculptures that later appear at the sites of suicides though he doesn’t remember putting them there. Throughout the book it is unclear if Will has had a psychotic break and talks to himself and a make believe girl. Or if he has brain damage and does not see reality. Or is he “death.” I left this book feeling perplexed about how it won a Printz honor.

[Sherry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this short novel from the returns when the description on the back piqued my interest. It was underwhelming... While the premise - teens are dying and strange carved totems appear just after or before their deaths - is interesting, the story just doesn't deliver. Told in second person stream-of-consciousness, the book just never really gets anywhere. I am ok with books that are layered and the reader isn't really clear what's "real" and what's just in the protagonist's head, but I found this one confusing and not particularly satisfying.

[Caleb Park · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think that the book was very alright. It starts off with a new setting where the readers get introduced to the main character Will. We get to know who raises Will and we don't really get that much info on his backstory and life.

In the next part of the book he starts going to school and we get to know this new character Angela and his teacher Mr. Jacks. Almost all of the book includes questions that the author acts Will. There's no new plot until later on. The questions are all deep thoughts that lead to nowhere.

Will starts to act out and get into trouble. He also has a falling out. He starts to not care about anything. Then there's more pointless thoughts going on in his head and questions. In Conclusion, the book ends with him being satisfied. It was also a terrible ending and pointless cliffhanger.

[Liza Reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

i have no idea what the fuck happened in this book. i felt like i was dreaming when i read this, not because it was etheral but because i didnt understand anything going on. i read this as trying to read more Printz winners but each book i read off the list makes me more and more frustrated. how did a book like this get an honors medal?!? what made the judges select this book?!? i would love to see the book from their point of view.

[grace williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m very conflicted about this book. The concept was fascinating, but the product was disappointing. I bought this book having no clue it was in second person (???), which was unfortunate. Will’s character was extremely unlikable and all of his decisions made me cringe. I think it had potential to be a philosophical story, and had quite a few well-written spots, but fell short of the mark. I would not recommend this book, but I won’t go saying it’s terrible.

[Ahil Lalani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will is a kid who has moved into a new high school and struggles to find new friends but when he eventually does find new friends they aren't the ones he wants. They get in trouble and they also get Will in trouble. This book is fast paced and talks about the struggles Will goes through in his teenage years. I recommend this book to people who are like serious and aren't looking for a funny book.