Stick

Starred review from August 15, 2011
In Smith’s intense third novel, 13-year-old Stark McClellan—“Stick” to his friends—has been dealt a very rough hand, having been born without an ear and suffering horrific abuse at the hands of his parents, on top of everyday middle-school hell. Lacking confidence, Stick and his older brother, Bosten, don’t realize that other kids live lives free from constant beatings and crazy house rules. Stick is a good kid, but he’s at an age when sexual arousal is embarrassingly frequent, girls are mysterious, and nothing in his life makes sense. Then he discovers in rapid succession that his brother is gay, his parents are divorcing, and his brutal father has custody. When Bosten disappears after a violent confrontation with their father, Stick steals the family car in an attempt to find him. Smith (The Marbury Lens) revs up the emotions and the violence in this realistic and powerful tale, bringing in sexual abuse, hard drugs, and homelessness, while including enough positive characters to give Stick the support he desperately needs, providing for an imperfect but believable happy ending. Age 14–up.

September 1, 2011

A fast-paced, unsettling portrayal of abuse and brotherly loyalty.

Born with one ear, 14-year-old Stick, née Stark, has been bullied for as long as he can remember in his Oregon hometown. His tough older brother, Bosten, usually looks out for him.  At home, their abusive parents do little else besides smoke, drink and beat the living daylights out of their sons. When Bosten is discovered in flagrante delicto with his best friend, he's severely beaten and imprisoned by their father. The next morning, Stick discovers Bosten has fled the scene. Stick then embarks on a perilous journey to find him. Intense, brutal and heartrending, Smith's latest starts off choppy but soon finds its stride. He visually breaks up his dialogue to represent Stick's hearing disability, which may seem twee at first, but the cumulative effect makes the device work. The abuse is relentless, and it doesn't let up even after the brothers finally escape their parents. A temporary relief—for both the characters and readers—is found at an aunt's house in California, where friendship, surfing and sand wash their anxieties away. Neither brother understands just how awful their life is until they experience this respite, and that makes the abuse at home all the worse. Smith's well-crafted dialogue and characterizations help move the plot along quickly towards an unnecessarily crunched ending.

An altogether compelling, if disturbing work. (Fiction. 14 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2011

Gr 8 Up-A tall, thin frame has earned 13-year-old Stark McClellan the nickname "Stick." He was born with a deformed ear, more like a hole in his head, and he is hyperaware of what he sees as a grotesque physical defect. His older brother, Bosten, defends him from bullies when he can, and the boys do their best to look out for each other when their abusive parents are on the rampage. Stick has one friend, Emily, but not much else is good in his life. When Bosten finds some small measure of love with a schoolmate (another boy), Stick keeps the secret without judging, but all too quickly the families find out. Bosten runs away and Stick follows to find him. Well into the story, Aunt Dahlia is introduced, adding a small blossom of hope for the brothers. While staying with her, they experience life free from emotional and physical abuse and enjoy a week surfing with kids in her neighborhood. Dahlia and her seaside home offer the promise of healing and better times to come. Smith effectively structures the words on some pages to mimic the one-sided input Stick hears through his single functional ear. Most of the story is bleak and harsh, and Stick tells his tale in language that is frank, dark, brutal, haunting, and mesmerizing. Suggest this to readers who can handle the intensity of Smith's In the Path of Falling Objects (2009) and The Marbury Lens (2010, both Feiwel & Friends).-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2011
Grades 8-11 Following up a masterwork like The Marbury Lens (2010) can't be easy. Smith throws readers a curveball with this deceptively quiet yet fascinatingly terse offering about a tall, skinny 13-year-old nicknamed Stick. Born with just one ear, he is used to harassment, though few of his bullies suspect the shocking abuse doled out by his troubled parents. His rock is his older brother, Bosten, a bold soul hiding the fact that he is gaya powder keg should their father find out. Sentences are nontraditionally arrangedsome pages look as if Smith took a baseball bat to themto reflect how sounds bounce inside Stick's head: But some here, a very long space sounds don't get killed easily. Despite this touch of experimentalism and a final-act road trip dark enough to rival any of Adam Rapp's, this is a novel saturated with joy, especially when the brothers take a sojourn to a kindly aunt's beach house and find themselves playing California. A smaller work from Smith, but one that sustains his growing rep as one of the sharpest blades in YA.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)