School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-Gretchen Yee, 16, feels painfully ordinary in a school where everyone is an overachiever. Teachers at The Manhattan School for Art and Music don't appreciate her artistic skill, and she feels like she doesn't fit in with the students. She longs to understand what others think of her, and her wish to be a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room comes true. She spends a week there observing her classmates, learning and seeing more than she ever expected. In addition to humorously discovering the mysteries of male anatomy, the teen sees the casual cruelty of her ex-boyfriend, and that her best friend sacrifices her own happiness to keep from upsetting her. She also discovers that there are boys who like her and some who are hiding painful secrets. With this knowledge, Gretchen gains confidence, which ultimately allows her to be a better person. When the insect character emerges, Lockhart's writing style moves from prose to near poetry as she weaves in and out of Gretchen's mind. This technique allows readers to know what the protagonist is thinking, keeps the pace of the quickly moving story, and suspends disbelief with the very absurd concept. Although containing some strong language and mature situations, this novel is a good choice for teens who are unsure of their place in the world, including reluctant readers.-Stephanie L. Petruso, Anne Arundel County Public Library, Odenton, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Narrator Gretchen Yee will grab readers from the first page with her snappy commentary. Even at her Manhattan arts high school, she's a misfit. But the comic-book obsessed artist gets an unexpected chance to live as an alter ego when, for a week, she turns into a literal fly on the wall, trapped inside the boys' locker room. Lockhart (The Boyfriend List) sets up a clever parallel by making Gretchen's class read The Metamorphosis, and-like Kafka's protagonist-it is unclear what caused Gretchen's change (she suspects a philosophical old man she met on the subway, or a strange soda she drank on the way to school, among other things). Her sense of humor offsets her generally negative outlook, and the pace picks up during her time as a fly. As Gretchen buzzes around hundreds of naked bodies, she witnesses a lot of locker room drama, and worries about the morality of spying even as she categorizes their bums or describes an uncircumcised penis. She also realizes how insecure boys can be (she even learns that confidence is not always what makes someone sexy-sometimes, as in the case of her crush-its just the opposite). The conclusion wraps a bit neatly (and without much introspection), but readers will find enough thoughtful material here to keep buzzing through the pages. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(High School) With an appropriate nod and wink to Kafka, this unexpectedly sharp comedy charts its own metamorphosis -- from teen angst (""Life as an Artificial Redhead"") to surreal wish-fulfillment fantasy (""Life as a Vermin"") and beyond (""Life as a Superhero""). Gretchen Yee, a well-intentioned but self-absorbed teen smarting over her parents' sudden divorce, wishes she could be ""a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room"" -- and then has to deal with the consequences when her wish inexplicably comes true. Stuck in observer mode (upon pain of squishy death), she learns to consider others' perspectives, enabling her to mend fences with her father, play matchmaker for her love-struck best friend, and connect with her own crush upon her return to human form. The detailed warts-and-all description of the naked male body will attract readers and provoke controversy in equal measure; thankfully, it is used merely as a gateway to Gretchen's larger revelation (rather clumsily stated) that the boys who so intimidate her are ""just bodies. They're just people."" Gretchen's struggle to develop as an artist while satisfying both a pretentious teacher and her own love of comic books lends some depth to the plot, and the arts-high-school setting, where students conform by flaunting their nonconformity, presents intriguingly inverted questions of individuality and self-expression. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
While many kids may feel ignored and invisible, Gretchen actually becomes a fly and spends her insect life in the locker room of the boys' gym. Fortunately for readers, the first section of the story introduces her so-called normal life as an art student at Manhattan High School for the Arts. Coming from a blended family that is rapidly disintegrating into separate quarters for each parent, Gretchen finds comfort in her drawings of comics, especially Spidey. She suffers from a crush on Titus, another Art Rat, and her homework assignment of Kafka's "Metamorphosis." Time spent as a fly watching boys change into and out of gym clothes gives Gretchen a perspective that no other girl has on the boys' real characters, their hairy behinds and the nitty-gritty of certain puzzles, such as Titus's self-consciousness about his gay parents. Rather than focusing on the hocus-pocus of being an insect, it's all about the new point of view. Unresolved are the issues from when two boys get beat up by a bully, but Gretchen emerges to make some changes in herself and her world as a result of her new perspective. Fine fun for fans of both Kafka and Spiderman. (Fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.