Point of View

September 15, 2019
Translated from French, Bard's English-language debut depicts a 16-year-old boy who has an addiction to pornography. Lucas Delveau spends hours each day holed up in his room watching porn. He forgoes basic hygiene, gains weight, starts doing poorly in school, and avoids friends. He's also sworn off all interactions with girls ever since he fantasized about a schoolmate named Samira, then sent her an unsolicited naked photo and she reacted negatively. (Later, a therapist brushes off this unwanted sexual advance as merely "clumsy"). His parents find out about his porn habit and take away his devices. In a suicide attempt, Lucas jumps out of a fast-moving car and gets sent to inpatient rehab. The narrative jarringly switches between the perspectives of Lucas and his father (and occasionally his mother), all presumed white. Lucas' parents' points of view highlight their obliviousness and disgust with their son's porn use. Lucas' father says, "He makes me want to puke. He's a pig." While the author tries to distinguish between human rights abuses in exploitative porn versus feminist productions, problems unique to the digital age versus the experiences of earlier generations, and healthy expressions of sexuality versus addiction by an underage viewer, the distinctions could have been made clearer. Some of the language also presents a derogatory attitude toward fat people. A provocative work that could have been more nuanced. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)

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October 14, 2019
Growing up in Chartres, teen Lucas has been addicted to online porn for years. Despite blatant warning signs that he is in trouble (falling grades, antisocial behavior), he manages to keep the truth hidden from everyone until his computer crashes. While his father’s friend is making repairs, Lucas’s browsing history is revealed, and his stunned parents are at a loss about what to do. In his first YA novel to be translated into English, French writer Bard tackles a provocative subject with objectivity and unabashed honesty. His reporterlike narrative stays focused on facts, allowing readers to form their own judgments about characters and their decisions. Relevant to adults as well as adolescents, the book examines how Lucas’s curiosity about sex evolves into an obsession, how his image of women becomes warped, and how his addiction pays a toll on his parents’ marriage. After he enters a specialized center for teens, Lucas’s recovery is a slow, arduous process, but the benefits of intense therapy are clear as he experiences his first healthy relationship with a female peer. The story’s journalistic quality may be off-putting to some, but Bard’s exposure of a universal, rarely discussed issue is commendable. Ages 14–up.

November 1, 2019

Gr 9 Up-Lucas is a 16-year-old withdrawn, overweight French teenager who doesn't get along with his father. Despite playing tennis at a local club, Lucas's parents Sebastian and Marie notice that he has trouble staying active and making friends. He also has trouble keeping up his grades and staying awake in school. When Lucas's computer stops working, his dad takes it in to get fixed. This is when he discovers his son's secret: Lucas stays up all night looking at pornography. As Sebastian and Marie argue about how to address this with him, Lucas grows more reclusive and miserable, and eventually makes a disastrous and life-altering decision. The book follows his attempt to move forward with his life and details his attempts at recovery. The novel does not show Lucas discovering pornography; when the story begins, Lucas is already addicted and he very quickly recounts the circumstances that brought him to this point. This happens much too rapidly for readers to develop a rapport with his character. The narrative gives much more attention to his parents, how they work through the discovery of their son's addiction, and their disagreements over how to handle it. Much attention is paid to Lucas being overweight, which seems superfluous to the plot. VERDICT While the story, and Lucas, become much more absorbing in the book's third act at a rehabilitation center, it does not make up for the disjointed and message-heavy first half. Not recommended.-Ryan P. Donovan, Southborough Public Library, MA

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