Author: Barry Lyga
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 390
Progress: 9/50 books read; 3259/15000
Synopsis: The sequel to one of Lyga's other books, the Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl, this book is told through the perspective of Kyra Sellers, the latter part of its predecessor's title. Following the final events of the first book, this one opens up as Kyra is putting a cap on a six months' stint in a mental institution; her father goes through the proper channels to get her there after she attempts to commit suicide. Following this, Kyra now must return to school and back home. Her friends, for the most part, have remained the same, but then some things, namely Fanboy, have not. Soon enough, bad memories come rolling her way like a raging tide, prompting Kyra to want to get even with those who inflicted so much hell on her before being sent away.
My take: I'll say two things regarding Goth Girl Rising to kind of set the mood for the my take section on this, my ninth book for the challenge. Better yet, make that three. First of all, I have been dying to read this book ever since I learned, through a library catalog of Lyga that he'd not only written other books, but also a sequel to one of the ones I most thoroughly enjoyed over the past few years. Second, the reason I read this one, as well as its predecessor, is because of my history with the Goth scene; I used to be really into it, and dressed the part accordingly. And while I no longer dress the part and do have a much more colorful musical pallet, it's still something I dig a lot. Third of all, this book is hardly a stand-alone, meaning that you really need to read Astonishing Adventures before delving into this one.
With the third thing in mind, I will not say much about this book since, just as I was typing up my synopsis, doing so would very likely spoil the ending of the first book that really gives you a base for all of the stuff in this one. What I will say is that I really did enjoy the continuation of the story from the first book, as well as the unpredictable positive fate with the other main character's passion. I also love some of the more amusing twists and turns regarding Kyra, her friends, and some of her takes on the goth scene, relationships, sex, as well as other choice rants.
On the flip side, though, there were some portions of the book, some particular events that were a little predictable. A couple of these were, I guess, supposed to be revelations uncorked of things that just sounded a little bit too strange to be true in the first book. One or two were surprising, but a lot of things were predictable. This book also, in a way, really reminded me a lot of the subject of Catcher in the Rye; namely, the scatter-brained speaking style, the ranting, as well as trying their best to dodge the big issues at hand. With that in mind, this book, like CITR, borders a lot of time on whiny...sometimes even in the same ways.
In the end, taken as a whole, Goth Girl Rising delivered as much as I desired from the sequel to AAOFBAGG, perhaps a dash more. A few other little things, however, made the book lag in parts, but redeemed itself in most others.
Grade: B
