Review: The Field Guide to the North American Teenager

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one's a strange one to rate. It took me a long time to read, and it had a lot of good points, but also a lot of negative aspects too. All in all, I'll give it a perfectly middling rating, but I have to admit I'm somewhat disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the whole "Field Guide" aspect going on, it lent a pretty snarky style to the whole story. Unfortunately, that snark was somewhat undercut by the fact that, being told in third-person POV, it was therefore a lot harder for me to connect to Norris as a narrator and protagonist.


There's also the fact that Norris, for all his George Lass-like prickly charm, sometimes just winds up coming off too smug. Believe it or not, that stems from the way that Philippe has a lot of his characters play into stereotypes at first - alpha and beta jocks and cheerleaders, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a weird loner - and then subvert a lot of those same stereotypes. The cheerleader turns out to be a real sweetheart despite her initial nastiness, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is selfish and has a way of leading on love interests, the loner is open to trying new things but still deals with damaging depression, that sort of thing. Good on Philippe for writing those subversions, but Norris has a way of being surprisingly static in comparison. At least until the very end, but unfortunately it leaves a bad taste in my mouth sometimes, the way Norris almost continuously seems to treat everyone else as an experiment. As someone who feels a constant need to fight negative stereotypes of socially anxious and/or autistic people, I feel that Norris' "experimental" nature comes off as a bad stereotype of both.

That said, though, one of the book's greatest strengths is social commentary. Which is to be expected, being an #ownvoices novel from a Black Canadian author of Haitian descent. Norris is pretty fully aware of how deeply racism runs in both Canada and America, as well as general xenophobia and/or Othering. Hell, even Maddie, the Jerk With A Heart Of Gold cheerleader, insists on calling Norris "Canada" at all times, reminding me of how at least one incarnation of Lois Lane always called Clark Kent "Smallville." There's also the story about Norris' best friend back home, Eric, which I wish was more well-developed in the grand scheme of things since it feels, to me, like a fairly positive coming-out arc. Well, Eric's already out to Norris, and eventually is more out to his family and has a boyfriend, despite his family (or, well, his father) not being the most accepting. Well, quoth Eleanor Shellstrop, "pobody's nerfect," and Eric has a way of breathing life into the story - and helping me, in particular, restore some of my own faith in humanity.

Hopefully I'll be a little more into whatever book Ben Philippe gives us next, but yeah, I'm not giving up on this author by a long shot.

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