Man Made Boy by Jon Skovron - review

Man Made Boy
by Jon Skovron
Y/A, fantasy
2013


cover - in the story, Boy has stitching on hands or wrists, among other places.  So though the bolts give you a good idea of what kind of 'monster' Boy is, I would have thought some stitching would be a good addition.  Even so, the cover is fun, with the bolts, the nod to computer motherboard chips and the little heart shaped piece in his hand.

Man Made Boy was a fun book.  In keeping with my new policy of reading a Y/A book on a more regular basis (i.e., not only the books my fav author writes), I happily opened up this novel to read.  And though it took me longer to read than it should have (I shared the book, leaving it at a location where another person and I could read it in turns) I enjoyed reading this story.  

Imagine that Frankenstien's Monster, and the Bride of Frankenstein got together and had a son...er....made a son.  What would they do to keep said son safe?  Live underground?

Literally - they live underground, within a community of a variety of monsters, most of whom never see daylight or go out in public among the humans.  But to keep money coming in, they put on a show - a kind of broadway  or oldstyle variety show, the main attraction is Medusa, who can freeze one with a mere look, paralyze people with fear and other feelings....  This is where Boy's dad comes in.  He disconnects from his emotions and handles Medusa.  But that is a small part of this story.

Boy gets a chance to go out side with the leader of their community, and enjoys it more than he thought he would.  His life hasn't been too great anyway at the commune - his parents and him are at the bottom of the small society, ridiculed by the other monsters, who are themselves afraid of oing out and living among humans.  (there's a moral in there, somewhere)  

Boy also has a crush on one of the Trowes (think lithe troll with panther like moves...)...  Anyway - long review made short...

Boy leaves the compound, gets a job and starts blending in.  Only there's this computer code he's been working on that has come back to haunt him, and his crush shows up, things to to hell, Boy ends up on the run....

And there's some pretty good lessons in the book, not even disguised - straight up lessons - Boy even says so himself.  Which is good - nothing like trying to trick a teen into learning something. 

I found the book mostly enjoyable.
Boy's voice didn't really sound much like a teen, which could be either because the writer isn't a teen or that Boy isn't your average teen.

There are many cameos of just about any mythical monster you can name, as well as pop culture monster.
It was a fun read.