Rats Saw God

This book captured the listless discontent of my teen years with uncomfortable accuracy. As such, it could have been a very depressing read, but the sensitivity and humor of the narration make this one of my favorite YA novels.

San Diego, senior year: Steve York, son of famous astronaut Alan York (“the astronaut”), is failing classes, and is one English credit short of graduating. When his guidance counselor offers an assignment of a hundred page paper in exchange for that one credit, Steve decides to write what he knows, and so begins his recounting of his journey from the top of the world in Texas, sophomore year, where he had a job, a spot in an outlawed school club (the Grace Order of Dadaists – GOD for short), and a girlfriend with whom he was in love, to the present day, where he spends most of his days getting stoned out of his head on the beach. Very well done, great characters, most of their actions felt true. Also very funny…

TRIGGER WARNING: Statutory rape framed as cheating. Spoilers.

(grimly) Oh look. Another one-star rating. Originally last night, I rated this three stars because the writing was vivid and refreshing. I knocked it back down to one star because of the content and style were still making my skin crawl. I did read a good book after my last one-star rating, and tonight, I have another good book all set for me to read after I type up this review. I first read this when I was -way- too young to understand it emotionally, at twelve. I remembered what passes for plot points, though. I'd plucked it off a bookshelf in the house after my brother said it was boring, and put it there. A reference to the book was made recently in an entirely different show more context. I had a feeling I'd have a different experience reading it as an adult, so I checked it out. This is a character study that contrasts Steve York's high school sophomore year in Houston, Texas, to his senior year in San Diego, California.

The transitions, while in different font and labeled with appropriate timing, are clunky and increasingly meaningless. The story here is clearly in Steve's sophomore year and his relationship with Dub. His senior year in the book is pretty much to show change, but there's no emotional gravity or indication of actual change. His friendship with Doug started out strong. He even lists the cast of characters and gives them little bios. I thought the book was going to be about -that-. I was looking forward to it. But this is in fact a book about a romantic love and relationship overtaking everything, which especially happens in teen years. I was the prime example, myself.

Steve's relationship to his father is shown one way--hatred and indifference--and described a totally different way in the last hundred pages, by family members. Readers are never shown that! From beginning to end, this is a book about Dub through Steve's eyes. Everything outside of that is increasingly padding. The story could have ended when Steve discovered Dub with their teacher. Or rather, a teenager discovered that a thirty-year-old man who regularly was in a position of power over a fifteen-year-old girl was sexually assaulting her. Steve frames it like Dub is cheating on him, which uhh, no. The -adult- in this situation could have gone and found a fellow -adult- to have sex with. For some reason, he thinks children--I hated this horrid plot point. Steve could have stuck the earrings under her windshield and oh, book's over. The author did not write it as such. The book continued for a bit. I'm glad I read this as an adult, but I didn't like it.. show less

I inhaled this book, enjoying the narrator's sardonic wit throughout; however, I felt that the resolution weirdly shifted focus only a few pages from the end, leaving me feeling kind of hoodwinked and unsatisfied.

Steve York, the narrator, is a high school burnout in what should be his final semester. He's managed to become a National Merit finalist, and he's also managed to be short one English credit for graduation. (Actually, we call that kind of kid a "semifinalist". A handful of smart kids are recognized by NM at every school, but the disaffected ones with B averages -- the 8% of National Merit kids that have bad attitudes and worse home lives -- don't become "finalists". Surely Thomas knows that and some editor strongarmed him into show more using this irritating misnomer. Shame on you, nasty armwrestling editor.)

His school guidance counselor challenges him to write a 100-page paper or story in order to make up the English credit. Steve can write about anything he wants, with the strong suggestion that it should be something he knows. As he writes about how he went from straight-A Houston student to San Diego pothead, he unwittingly begins to purge his demons. The story switches context from San Diego to Houston at irregular intervals. The two stories are rendered in different fonts and heralded by date and location headers -- it's not difficult to keep them straight. Steve's therapeutic writing, combined with new information he gleans in San Diego, recenters him and helps him make sense of his life back in Texas.

I identified with Steve a great deal; I enjoyed his voice and found his story believable but not boring or predictable. His story's not as traumatic as he thinks it is, and over the course of this short book he matures enough to figure that out. He reconciles with himself, and near the end of the book, he reconciles with his father. The second part feels shoehorned in, since the reader is led to believe for most of the book that neither Steve nor his profoundly aloof father are even aware that there is anything to reconcile. show less

I once read that books are a labor of love. It takes a year or more to pen your masterpiece. I hope this is not Rob Thomas' masterpiece. I liked the 1996 vibe and the Dadaism obsessed high schoolers, but even with this setup, I could care less about the characters. It's ironic that a portion of the book focuses on writing and how to be a great one - to share your feelings in a way that others can relate and feel the same. I wanted that! Bring on the heartbreak of your first love, of not understanding your parents or their marriage, and even the High School Senior angst, I'll read that all night long. Instead, we get the "slice of life" book that evoked little to no emotion from this Dog Saw Star.

So, the subtitle of this is 'everything doesn't have to make sense.' That means I should *not* be interested in this, as I'm really vulnerable to getting upset by things that don't come together or are implausible or whatever. But I am so intrigued by Dog Was Star that I do feel compelled to consider reading this recommendation from the authors of the comic strip Unshelved."
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Done. Well, it was indeed implausible. The author claims cred, but I'm not convinced. V. melodramatic. Not recommended - but not bad, either. I mean, the characters were iconographic, but at least some of them were new icons. And it didn't patronize kids, thank goodness.

I really like the cover of the edition I read. The face at the top is an artistic show more optical illusion - depending on how you look at, the eye is open *or* closed, which is representative of the character, who goes from high-achieving & gifted to stoner and back again. Heck, for all I know, the author had that drawing in hand, and decided to write a story about it...." show less

It’s tough to discern the intended audience for this perfectly harmless and rather mundane Young Adult novel. The story, as told by protagonist Steve York in alternating timelines that differ by a couple of years (a gap that, as we all know, can feel life an absolute lifetime to a teenager), focuses on the melancholy aftereffects of the inexplicable dissolution of his first adolescent romance. Is this a teen romance novel for guys?

We’ve seen this story before—but this time from the guy’s perspective (how original, right?). Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl are benignly counterculture and authenticate their quirkiness by joining a high school club that promotes Dadaist art. Boy and girl lose their respective show more virginities with each other. Girl, for some reason the boy never understands, ditches boy as boy grapples with his father issues and comes to terms with the real reason for his parents’ divorce. Boy goes off to college.

The novel is quaint in its absolute avoidance of any of the prevalent themes of contemporary YA literature—there is no acknowledgment of multiculturalism, violence and bullying do not exist in this novel’s fictional universe, nothing about the wonders and dangers of technology…heck, Steve even writes letters—old-fashioned snail-mail letters—to his sister, the Internet apparently doesn’t exist, and no one owns a cell phone. What is this? 1988? (Actually, 1996, a mere 20 years ago, thus demonstrating how rapidly mediocre YA literature ages.)

So—not awful, not impressive. Not anything really, except startlingly mediocre. show less