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School Library Journal
Reviewed on July 1, 2009
Gr 9-Up Fourteen-year-old Jamiestreet name Punkzillais AWOL from military school. Hes already lived hand to mouth in a west coast city, stealing iPods, doing cheap drugs, and getting the occasional joyless hand job. Now he is headed to Memphis where his oldest brother, Peter, a gay playwright, is dying from cancer. His story is told through his letters to Peter as he hitchhikes across the country, written in the backseats of cars, under a tree where a man hanged himself, and ultimately in retrospect when he reaches his journeys sad end. Along ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Horn Book Magazine
Reviewed on May 1, 2009
Nobody writes about the disposable, marginalized youth of America with the same sense of uncomfortable, voyeuristic fascination as Adam Rapp, though his novels, featuring characters ill-equipped to deal with life's problems, can feel gratuitously brutal. Still, with several years having passed since the publication of his last YA novel (Under the Wolf, Under the Dog, rev. 10/05), fans will be eager to read this new one—and with good reason. Rap...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Horn Book Guide
Reviewed on January 1, 2009
Traveling to visit his brother who's dying of cancer, fourteen-year-old Jamie writes letters. These are interspersed with earlier missives wri...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Junior Library Guild
Reviewed on July 1, 2009
In Punkzilla, Adam Rapp gives young-adult literature a memorable and touching character. Jamie is a delinquent runaway with a keen observational eye and trusting nature. His intelligent and uniquely hilarious voice is sure to stay with readers. Punkzilla’s first-person epistolary narrative allows Jamie to record his thoughts without regard for spelling or punctuation, making his writing all the more convincing and authentic. Leaving Oregon, Jamie writes: “That’s pretty much all I can see the sic...Log In or Sign Up to Read More