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Carmen's Reviews > How I Learned to Fly
How I Learned to Fly (Goosebumps, #52)
by
by
Carmen's review
bookshelves: children, fiction, horror, traditionally-published, he-says, published1997
Mar 05, 2015
bookshelves: children, fiction, horror, traditionally-published, he-says, published1997
Read 2 times. Last read March 5, 2015.
This book is a hot mess. Jack Johnson is a 12-year-old who is in a pissing contest with another 12-year-old named Wilson Schlame. I don't get it. I thought testosterone poisoning set in a little later than this. Maybe I was wrong. The boys compete with each other in EVERYTHING and Wilson always wins. He's a complete asshole who has to one-up Jack on everything Jack attempts to do.
What's the root of all this?
A cute girl, of course! Her name is Mia. The boys make complete idiots out of themselves vying for her attention. If I were her, I'd be really fed up and tell both of them to scram. However, she seems to find Wilson's assholery 'charming' and just kind of ignores the facts like a.) both boys act like complete cavemen around her and b.) Wilson is a complete asshole who stomps on Jack's accomplishments at every opportunity.
So. I suppose you want me to get around to talking about the flying? Okay, Jack flees Mia's birthday party because he can't stand Wilson acting like a total asshole nonstop for four hours. He (for some reason) hides out in an old abandoned house where he finds an (admittedly) very cool-sounding book titled FLYING LESSONS. Instead of being about airplanes, like Jack initially assumed, it is illustrated with tons of pictures of people in old-fashioned clothes flying through the air.
Jack takes the book home and follows the instructions to be able to fly. It involves a lot of hopping and making a crazy dough mixture with a secret ingredient.
Long story short, it works. And that's when things go bad...
...
The narrative stream in this book is very poor. Events are happening, it's a big mish-mash, and it doesn't really make much sense, even for a Goosebumps book.
Another problem is Wilson is just such a dick. Jeez Louise, what is with Stine and creating kids who are little terrors? I really don't expect three-dimensional characterization in a Goosebumps book, but Wilson was grating on my nerves. I sympathized with Jack for wanting to beat the kid at something - anything - and wipe that annoying smirk off his face.
Until page 80 when Jack starts acting like a jerk, refusing to teach Mia how to fly because he's a selfish person. Ugh. That made me so mad! And then when he decides he IS going to teach her how to fly, it's all because he wants her to swoon all over him and be the "big man." Ugh. So gross. I hate all this macho shit.
Tl;dr - Poor plot, poor execution, terrible characters. The ending was pretty good, though.
What's the root of all this?
A cute girl, of course! Her name is Mia. The boys make complete idiots out of themselves vying for her attention. If I were her, I'd be really fed up and tell both of them to scram. However, she seems to find Wilson's assholery 'charming' and just kind of ignores the facts like a.) both boys act like complete cavemen around her and b.) Wilson is a complete asshole who stomps on Jack's accomplishments at every opportunity.
So. I suppose you want me to get around to talking about the flying? Okay, Jack flees Mia's birthday party because he can't stand Wilson acting like a total asshole nonstop for four hours. He (for some reason) hides out in an old abandoned house where he finds an (admittedly) very cool-sounding book titled FLYING LESSONS. Instead of being about airplanes, like Jack initially assumed, it is illustrated with tons of pictures of people in old-fashioned clothes flying through the air.
Jack takes the book home and follows the instructions to be able to fly. It involves a lot of hopping and making a crazy dough mixture with a secret ingredient.
Long story short, it works. And that's when things go bad...
...
The narrative stream in this book is very poor. Events are happening, it's a big mish-mash, and it doesn't really make much sense, even for a Goosebumps book.
Another problem is Wilson is just such a dick. Jeez Louise, what is with Stine and creating kids who are little terrors? I really don't expect three-dimensional characterization in a Goosebumps book, but Wilson was grating on my nerves. I sympathized with Jack for wanting to beat the kid at something - anything - and wipe that annoying smirk off his face.
Until page 80 when Jack starts acting like a jerk, refusing to teach Mia how to fly because he's a selfish person. Ugh. That made me so mad! And then when he decides he IS going to teach her how to fly, it's all because he wants her to swoon all over him and be the "big man." Ugh. So gross. I hate all this macho shit.
Tl;dr - Poor plot, poor execution, terrible characters. The ending was pretty good, though.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
March 5, 2015
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Started Reading
March 5, 2015
– Shelved
March 5, 2015
–
Finished Reading
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by
Courtney
(new)
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rated it 3 stars
Oct 20, 2017 07:39PM
What bothered me the most is that clearly Mia likes Wilson. It's really pathetic that Jack kept trying to get Mia's affection. I get he is a kid but still, back off!
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Courtney wrote: "What bothered me the most is that clearly Mia likes Wilson. It's really pathetic that Jack kept trying to get Mia's affection. I get he is a kid but still, back off!"I did not think about that angle! Interesting point! :)
