E. Lockhart is one of the best young adult novelists writing today. She is somehow able to capture what it is like to be a teenager -- complete with family issues and tension, friendship problems and boy-angst. She writes in a way that is fun, easy to read and humorous. Fly on the Wall is not my favorite of Lockhart, but it is darned good.Fly on the Wall is a very short book, the audio is only about 5 hours but is superbly done. The setting is New York City and an art based charter school. The main character sees herself like most teenage girls do -- full of flaws. She wonders why her best friend won't call her back and wishes that the boy she likes would notice her. She wants her parents to stay together and stop fighting. And she can't figure out how to clean her room.I went blind into this book, reading it only because it was written by E. Lockhart. But this book has an element of magical realism, somehow, improbably the main character spends a week as a fly on the wall in the boys locker room. The set-up seems crazy, but Lockhart makes it work. The week spent as a fly is surprisingly not gross and Gretchen makes some silly discoveries (hey those cute boys have lots of imperfections too! boys are shy in the locker room too! why do the boys have more space than the girls?)Fans of realistic (yes, even though she turns into a fly) young adult fiction would enjoy this book.
