Read the full review on my blogI would class this book, not as a YA, but as a children’s book – it is very simply written. Auggie is 10 years old so it does sort of figure that it would be written in such an easy way, but it was just too easy for me. Maybe it’s because I’m reading this book in my early 20s that I feel this way, but it just didn’t capture me enough – the only thing that got me through this book was the hope that it might get better and because it was such an easy read.The book was sectioned off into showing different peoples perspectives of the situation, from August, to his best friend Jack Will, to his sister Via. His sisters perspective was by far the best of them all because it was so real and true, the feelings that she was expressing were not those that were being portrayed in Auggie’s section because he didn’t see that she was not being who she really was – it’s all explained in her section so I won’t go into too much detail, but it was by far the most hard hitting for me. There’s a section towards the end of the book that was written without any capital letters and with a lack of grammar, I did not understand why this was written this way as it wasn’t explained and I found it very hard to concentrate while reading as it was really disconcerting.The last thing I want to say is that I didn’t find it realistic in any way shape or form. Little kids are cruel, little kids make fun of things that they don’t see as ‘normal’. The majority of people in Auggie’s school, although they did a little bit, did not bully him as much as I would have expected them to. I know this sounds really awful on my part but it’s the reality of the situation, if a boy that had a natural deformity went to school, the likelihood of him being bullied immensely is very high. I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone but the thing is, it happens, and I didn’t think this showed the true colours of a lot of young children.I didn’t feel anything for Auggie, whether it be sadness or happiness, I don’t know whether that was because he didn’t go through enough to warrant me feeling that way or not, but I didn’t really care. I may sound like a heartless human being but these are just my thoughts of reality, and this book didn’t live up to the hype for me.
