This review has a horrible title

 By Ashley B.

Barry Lyga truly showed a realistic scarring tragedy in this novel Boy Toy. This book was bone chilling but not in the sense of fear but in the sense of violation.  This young boy plays the star and yet a victim of a heinous crime. Even though he starts off young, he grows up and that is where the book takes its form. It talks about his life, emotions and how he deals with what has been done in his lifetime. What amazes me is how the author captured Josh Mendel's way of thinking and his plans to try and fix the damage in which someone else forced upon him.

            Although some areas were blurry and hard to keep up going from constant flashback and present timing, once fully into the book and what it is all about you realize a sense of emotional attachment for Josh Mendel.  His detachment from emotion makes you have it for him, especially when he is trying to obtain a lost love. I wish that there were a story that was based off the antagonists' point of you. The way this book was written allowed the reader to go into the pages as if you were there, standing beside him throughout the book. I feel that in order to go a little further into the book and show maybe even a deeper meaning that the antagonist should have had a story or at least a part of it, just to see what was going through her head to do this.

           

The genre is described under the category of young- adult; I would also like to add in thriller. This book simply puts the words into a past moment in a young boy's disturbing life.  The pace of the book was quite calming, it allowed the reader to stroll through the book and get a sense of the story, like noted earlier though…I am not a fan of the blurs between certain flashbacks leading back into the present time. The dialog overall even though at some points fuzzy, it allowed a sense of realism which seemed to grab me as a general reader.

            If you like reading books that grab you by the seat of your pants, then I believe this would be a good read for you, it will allow you to see a world in the eyes of a young boy that didn't get to decide a certain part of his future.  Read it, read the story as many times as you wish just to get a feel for it and even if you desire you could go write a review. This book can be made available to you at any local book store, online and may even be found as an ebook.