Tolog Review: Boy Toy

Boy Toy 
by Barry Lyga
reviewed by Dominique Godinez

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga is a riveting, young adult story about the recovery from molestation and everyday highschool life of eighteen year old Joshua Mendel. This fictional story takes place in Brookdale, Maryland, a small town that Josh wants to leave desperately. Josh has the classic things on his mind every high school boy worries about: graduation, girls, sports, but also the baggage and pain that comes from being molested by his seventh grade teacher. Evelyn Sherman, known to Josh as Eve, is his rapist and former teacher who spent months grooming him. Written in first perspective, Josh tells you how he deals with daily issues and all about his “flickers”, flashbacks to time spent with Eve. He seems to be doing just fine in the beginning of the story, but when he hears that Eve is being released from jail his whole life changes again. He struggles with finding closure with what happened with Eve, while balancing a life with his friends, school, and baseball. Daily tasks are disrupted by the paranoia of seeing Eve after her release. When Josh thinks he sees Eve at the store he says, “The past keeps intruding on the present” (page 64). This causes him to have horrible flashbacks that affect his ability to maintain and create relationships. Rachel, a past friend, pops back in his life and after some struggling, they regain a friendship that contributes to Josh’s healing.

This book takes you through his mind, recovery, and feelings ever since he was molested. Josh has spent five years in confusion and denial of what truly happened to him. When the effect of the sexual abuse sets in, Josh realizes, “ I was molested. When I was twelve. And everyone in the world knew it except for me” (page 399). He craves closure, struggles with acceptance, and has to learn to let go of the past to move forward. Rachel, his best friend, and his therapist all make that hard goal of moving on a bit easier for Josh as they help him along his journey.

The author alternates the format of chapters with therapy session recordings, flashbacks to Josh’s vulnerable state with Eve, and his present day reality. The different formats of writing make reading and perceiving Josh’s situation easier. The therapy session recordings offers readers a deeper look into Josh’s emotions and troubles. I thought Boy Toy was incredibly interesting to read because not only did the book express the affects of rape, but it was written from a male perspective. Although it was interesting, the author had Josh play baseball and used many baseball references and rules that not everybody will get. In addition, Lyga wrote many themes and ideas into play that did not all compliment each other. For me, Rachel was a character who helped Josh, but did not always do the right things to him. Overall, reading this book was an experience that left me crying and astounded.