A teen at boarding school grapples with life, love, and rugby in a heartbreakingly funny novel.
Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.
With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.
Filled with hand-drawn infographics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
One of the best books I've read this year
By K. Sowa
This was my first Andrew Smith book and after reading it I finally realized why he has so many devoted fans. Winger was heartbreaking, honest, and hilarious. I don't mean smile while you're reading funny, I mean that I laughed so hard at parts of this book that I woke up my husband because my laughter was shaking the whole bed. (Any book that has a haiku about getting kicked in the balls will always be number one in my heart, ok?) The hilarity is artfully combined with moments of painful honesty that go perfectly with Ryan Dean's raw and unapologetically hormonal narrative voice. The book is also filled with the cartoons and infographics that Ryan Dean creates, which adds to the humor and overall experience of reading this book. For me, it brought me even further into the story because I wasn't just reading about the cartoons that Ryan Dean was drawing for his friends, I was getting to see them, as well. (I would like a graphic novel that tells Screaming Ned's back story, please.)The thing about Ryan Dean that I loved was that even though he is riddled with a lot of self-doubt, he really doesn't let it hold him back. He's younger and smaller than all of the guys, but he plays rugby with everything he's got, anyway. He's rooming with the biggest bully on the team, but that doesn't stop him from crushing on said bully's girlfriend. The girl he loves thinks of him as a "little boy" but he never gives up. Although some of his decisions made me cringe, I could not help but fall in love with the way he just decided to go big or go home. Although Ryan Dean alone was entertaining enough, the people he interacts with at school were a big part of the reason why I loved this book so much. Every relationship in this book was a treasure. Even the most unsympathetic residents of Opportunity Hall eventually found a place in my heart, which I think is a testament to Andrew Smith's writing and his ability to flesh-out the characters. That ability to make you care about everyone is the reason why, more than halfway through the book, you will find yourself going from laughing to crying. I wasn't prepared for that and it made the book a very intense read, but if anything, I think it made me love it even more. In my mind, Winger was ultimately a story about love and acceptance that was framed within the context of the complicated and confusing feelings of a hyper-intelligent teenage boy. There are very few books that get it right the way that Winger does. I am so glad that I read this story. Read this book and you won't be sorry. Trust me on this one, folks.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Great Narrator, mediocre plot
By Tiffany M. Stephens
Ryan Dean West may be the most realistic 14 year old narrator I have ever read. Horny, funny, and horribly self-absorbed, he muddles through his junior year, managing to pick fights with just about every male he comes into contact with. But while I liked the voice and style of the narration, I didn't feel any great emotional connection to Ryan Dean. He was supposedly the smartest kid in school ( a junior at age 14), a varsity rugby player, receiver of the affection of the two hottest girls at the school, and friends to some of the most popular kids, yet somehow he was supposed to be pathetic? I didn't buy it. He seemed just as douchey as all the other kids on the Rugby team, even more so , maybe. Perhaps that was the point, but on further reflection, I guess I missed the point of the story entirely. It takes a lot of fights, drunken nights, sex jokes, and make-out sessions before anything of real substance happens in the plot, and then when it does, despite the fact that it is earth shattering, it somehow feels anti-climactic. It was funny, and I will recommend it to my high school students, but I didn't love it like other reviewers did.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Great story
By Amy K. Jensen
I picked this book out for my 11 year old nephew (just turned 11), but wanted to read it first to make sure it was ok for him. I decided it wasn't right for him, though I know other 11 year olds who are probably mature enough for it. The book tells the story of Ryan Dean, a rugby player at a boarding school in the Pacific Northwest. His best friend is Annie, a fellow student who is a little older than him, and he's totally in love with her and trying to deal with his feelings for her for most of the book. He ends up living in a dorm for the kids who get into trouble, and easily succumbs to their bad behavior, including late night drinking and various pranks. One of the other guys in the dorm (and also a teammate on his rugby team) is gay, so that subject comes up quite a bit, but Ryan Dean doesn't care one way or the other because to him, Joey's a great teammate and friend. It's a good message for boys. There are also a few references to his own body and sexual arousal, and there are a few swear words (which Ryan Dean, as the narrator, recognizes he shouldn't be saying). Given that the book is about a rugby player, there is some violence. The book has a very powerful, emotional ending, and while I thought it was a very good book and had important messages, I think I'll give it to my nephew in another year or so. :)
