Kirkus Reviews QR Code
MAN MADE BOY by Jon Skovron

MAN MADE BOY

by Jon Skovron

Pub Date: Oct. 3rd, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-670-78620-6
Publisher: Viking

How do you circumvent the same, boring fate as your famous monster parents? Run away from home and launch a maniacal computer virus that might possibly annihilate human- and monster-kind. Oops. 

Seventeen-year-old Boy’s name is mundane, but his life isn’t. With his celebrity parents (Frankenstein’s monster and the Bride of), he lives among a merry band of monsters and mythical creatures in catacombs beneath Times Square. Under the guise of a theater troupe, they perform a popular creature-feature show, their human audience blissfully unaware that the stage is populated by bona fide trolls, sirens and an egomaniacal gorgon. With their mostly scientific origins, Boy and his parents aren’t fully accepted by the 100-percent myth-and-magic creatures in their commune. So rather than endure segregation—and the life his parents planned for him—Boy runs away. Tech-savvy Boy’s plan to leave his stamp on the world backfires when the computer virus he engineers goes rogue, the troll he loves goes feral and returning home means facing parental wrath. From naiad to minotaur, the straight characters, gay characters, jerks, bitches, buddies and one major diva are fleshed out, not merely relying upon their exteriors for interest. And as Boy’s journey takes him from the tri-state area to the West Coast, each locale rings with well-researched authenticity.

A comically creepy coming-of-age road trip stitched together with action, romance, sex, combat and a couple of bootleg cocktails.

(Science fiction. 12 & up)