Personal Rating: 3.5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.79 Stars As a child, Calvin felt an affinity with the comic book character from Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes. He was born on the day the last strip was published; his grandpa left a stuffed tiger named Hobbes in his crib; and he even had a best friend named Susie. Then Calvin’s mom washed Hobbes to death, Susie grew up beautiful and stopped talking to him, and Calvin pretty much forgot about the strip—until now. Now he is seventeen years old and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Hobbes is back, as a delusion, and Calvin can’t control him. Calvin decides that Watterson is the key to everything—if he would just make one more comic strip, but without Hobbes, Calvin would be cured. Calvin and Susie (is she real?) and Hobbes (he can’t be real, can he?) set out on a dangerous trek across frozen Lake Erie to track down Watterson. (goodreads.com) You know, when I first saw this book in the library my first thought was “Blasphemy!” I have been a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan since I was in third grade when I found Revenge of the Babysat on a bookshelf. In a group at church I had a friend who also loved the comics and whose name started with an “H” (*waves* if you are reading this, friend whose name starts with an “H”, hi!) and I called her Hobbes and she called me Calvin, which is kind of weird because that’s my dad’s name). This was the only comic strip I really cared about (and Peanuts), so when I saw that there was a YA novel based off of it I was sputtering indignantly. Then I had the idea that I could read this book and give it a scathing review just to spread the word about it’s irreverent ideas. So I read it. If you were hoping that I would be insulting this book in this review as I was thinking I would, I am sorry to disappoint you. This book was a tough read at times, yes, but not because of anything Calvin and Hobbes related, because it talks about mental illness and many other issues that I, personally, find difficult to discuss - just because I’m never sure how to approach the subject without stepping on toes or sounding ignorant, not because I don’t think it’s important to talk about. However, I really did enjoy this novel and found it hard to put down at times. At times, this did feel like a really weird fanfiction, but I think that was only because it used names that Calvin and Hobbes fans are so used to. My theory is that the author wanted to write a story about schizophrenia and rather than come up with her own hallucinations for her main character she used ones that wouldn’t need much backstory because many people already know all about them. I’d like to see a review from a person who has never read the comic strip and see if they were confused at all. Calvin behaved in a very Calvin-like manner most of the time, but he was his own, new character in many ways as well. His behavior was familiar, but also mature enough to believe that he’s supposed to be seventeen. His voice is an interesting choice for narrator, but I liked it because it felt very much like the comics. Susie is a great character as well, feeling less like her comic book counterpart and more like a loyal friend. And she is startlingly loyal to Calvin, following him on a dangerous journey across a frozen lake and sticking with him when she had several opportunities to go back. The formatting of this book is, well, I guess it’s supposed to be a letter, but it felt kind of like a script. At first I thought it would be annoying, which is how I generally feel when I pick up any book with formatting different than I’m used to, but I got used to it and enjoyed it. For a while I wasn’t sure if I really hated this book or really loved it. I think I’ve settled on really liking it, but not really wanting to read it again. It was a very short read and could probably be completed in a day if you have nothing else to do (I myself read snatches of it during my lunch breaks over the course of a week). Warning: I don’t know if anyone who has never read the comic strip will understand this book or not. I personally think it’s an enjoyable book regardless, but I’ve been a fan since third grade so I don’t know. I do not know. If you read it I hope you enjoy it, if you don’t… okay. Your choice. Do what you will. Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23310675-calvin
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