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Winger is about a fourteen year old boy named Ryan Dean West who plays rugby at Pine Mountain Academy. He is very "teenage boy" if you know what I mean; hormonal, crude, and thinks he's in love with every girl he sees. He also draws some, and those cartoons are integrated right into the text of the novel.

Why am I giving this book a 1 star rating?

I am fine with saying that I just found myself too old for this book. Some people may argue that you can't be too young or old for books, but in this case, having a fourteen year old protagonist dealing with some very mature issues, I could not relate. And subsequently, I felt like the issues were handled very poorly.

The book started as a 3-star book for me, but as it went on the rating plummeted to a 2-star for most of the book, and finally by the end I was so bothered that it went to a 1-star rating.

If you're afraid of anything possibly spoilery, then don't continue reading (unless A.) you've already read this book or B.) you don't plan on ever reading it:

This book deals with LGBTQ topics, which I thought were terribly done. The gay friend character in this book was a great guy, very likeable, and that had me optimistically reading on. But then, without spoiling anything, THE ENDING WAS SO AWFUL. Everything works out great for our narrator, Ryan Dean, but the gay friend (I don't like referring to him as this but I don't want to say the name in case you do end up reading it) is used as a freakin' plot device (not unlike the Manic Pixie Dream Girl that also shows up in this book as Ryan Dean's love interest). Literally, the whole novel is Ryan Dean saying how cool he is with his friend being gay, constantly defending his not-gayness whenever he has a genuine moment with said friend, and then the author exploiting this issue at the end to bring about character development in our narrator.

I was honestly appalled.

The resolution of this 440 page novel happens in the last 10 pages, so for literally 97% of the novel, Ryan Dean is a one-note, horny, teenage boy, and then MIRACULOUSLY becomes a better person by the end because of this plot point revolving around his gay friend.

Besides that, the writing was okay. I'm fine with a little profanity here or there, but this book just had so much in it that was unnecessary and distracting. And on top of that, Ryan Dean says he doesn't cuss in real life, but when he does in the book he reminds you that "it's just what I'm thinking" at the time, but not what he actually said. That got really old, really fast.

Was there anything redeeming about this book? Honestly, I'm trying to find something as I type this and the only thing I can think about is that I laughed a couple of times.

Sidenote: there is a point in the book where Ryan Dean's mom sends him a box of condoms and a pamphlet about how to have sex for the first time. He is fourteen years old. Now, I don't know about most parents, but I find it highly unlikely that a mother would send her 14 year old son any of those things. Just sayin'.

I know a lot of people love this book, but I'm struggling to see why. It's very cliché, and honestly quite offensive at times. I hope that my reasoning justifies this view. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Peace out.