What I read

Loner by Teddy Wayne

What it’s about

Loner opens with narrator David Federman arriving to study at Harvard. While David spent high school getting good grades, he doesn’t have any friends to show for those years. He has basically been invisible. But now David has the opportunity for a fresh start, a chance to reinvent himself.

When David meets Veronica, he is convinced she will be his ticket into the new world he dreams of, and he is determined to get to know her. But Veronica doesn’t end up being quite who David thinks she is.

This novel explores the troubled and troubling minds of young adults, and it’s a frightening place.

Why I picked it up

I heard about Loner near the end of 2016, when I saw it in a Kirkus Reviews “best of” list. I like stories that take place in school and/or coming-of-age tales, so the genre appealed to me, and I also like protagonists who are outsiders. I bought a copy while browsing in Book City on the Danforth one wintry afternoon.

What I liked about it

I loved the way this story builds and transforms as you read. It starts off as being funny, and while humourous moments appear as the novel progresses, the story becomes more disturbing. It’s a powerful psychological portrait of the narrator in his formative years.

On a technical level, I liked the perspective Loner is written in. Wayne chose to write using the second-person perspective. Second-person perspective is less common than first or third because it can be awkward. But I love second-person perspective when the author gets it right, and Wayne has done just that.

You’ll want to read it if…

Pick up Loner if you like books that get you inside the minds of characters and books that have you thinking about them for a while after you’ve turned the last page. But you’ll have to be okay with reading disturbing subject matter. I finished this book right before I went to bed, and I wouldn’t recommend that. I imagine it would be better to finish reading it in the daytime.

Recommended refreshments

These kids have gone away to school and are living away from home for the first time. There is plenty of drinking in dorm rooms going on. I recommend mixing some vodka and club soda, as a few of the characters do during a blackout, or just grab some cheap beer.