Review DULL BOY by Sarah Cross

DULL BOY
by Sarah Cross

Details:
May 14th 2009 by Dutton Juvenile

Hardcover, 308 pages

Placement in Pile:
Reaching New Heights

Summary:
What do you do if you can deadlift a car, and you spend your nights flying to get away from it all? If you’re fifteen-year-old Avery Pirzwick, you keep that information to yourself. When you’re a former jock turned freak, you can’t afford to let the secret slip.

But then Avery makes some friends who are as extraordinary as he is. He realizes they’re more than just freaks—together, maybe they have a chance to be heroes. First, though, they have to decide whether to trust the mysterious Cherchette, a powerful wouldbe mentor whose remarkable generosity may come at a terrible price.

Review:
The funny thing is I decided to return this book to the library without reading it. Why? Well, (this may sound lame) but the cover did nothing for me. No interest there. But at the last minute I cracked open the book and surprisingly, I read till the end.

What hooked me? The character's voice. It's teenage boy, with humor and angst and jerky friends. And in the midst of all of that, Avery (the protagonist) deals with 'personal problems' of having too much strength and being able to fly. The book progresses when he finds out he's not alone in his 'abilities'. The story is engaging and the mystery shrouding certain characters in the novel will have you reading to the end. It's a clever 'kids with powers' premise.
There were a few details that were lacking, and frankly the climax cleaned up a little too easy. It was almost as if Cross got to the end of the novel and thought, I'm so done with writing this. So she ended it early. Besides those minor issues, it's a good read, though peppered with some minor foul language.
Enjoy reading!