I Crawl Through It

King, A.S. (2015) I Crawl Through It. New York, NY: Little Brown and Company.

Summary

Sorry to say but I Crawl Through It is how I made it through this book.  It didn't grab a hold of me to keep me interested in reading it. So it took me a long time to get through it. The story of 5 teenagers who have to suffer through the mundanes of high school. But these characters don't  react like typical teens. They make plans to escape in an invisible helicopter built by Gustav.  All the characters Stanzi, Landsdale, China, and Gustav are bright and unique. This aids in their feeling of alienation from others. Landsdale lies and her hair grows. China has turned herself inside out.  Gustav ends up leaving with a naked neighbor. China runs off to meet a boy she met online. All of this goes on while also dealing with testing and assaults and bomb scares.  In the end, the characters quirks are what helps them to escape their reality.

Commentary

I mentioned how I had to force myself to finish this book.  Not that it isn't good. I just don't enjoy surrealism. If I had time to read it again maybe I could get a deeper meaning and understanding but for a one time read, I found it very confusing.  I did catch on that the kids were actually finding a way to deal with everyday teen age issues. They all had issues to work on. But I didn't understand a lot of the details.  But there is an audience for this time of YA literature.  There are people who like the idea of escape in unusual ways or to take the ordinary and turn it on its ear.

Connection 

Connection to text
I'm not sure if this is considered a dystonia novel. It definitely shows an alternate way to deal with social structure. But the world itself is not alternate. The setting is a typical high school. That aside the other elements are familiar with YA literature; sexual assault, dating, testing, and fitting in.  The genre is fiction with characters, plot, setting, and theme. The author used an unusual approach to tell the story.