3 Lessons From The Boy And The Spy

The Boy and the Spy by Felice Arena is a MG historical fiction set during one of the World Wars. I can't remember since it's been a while since I read it. (Edit: WW2, thank you Goodreads reviews.)

I try to keep the Lessons From The Media positive, even when noting the weaker aspect. Unfortunately, out of my February reads, The Boy and the Spy is one of two books I can formulate a post on. I happen to dislike this one slightly less than the other one, so here's the three main things that threw me off.

Disclaimer: this is more of a rant than an informative post. Apologies in advance.

Let's get to!

1. Clumsy prose.

Simple prose has a certain charm to it. Take The Travelling Cat Chronicles for example. It's another February read I will recommend to anyone who wants a bittersweet, slow read. The prose is simple but still captures the reader's attention. It helps that Nana, the narrator, has a personality-filled voice.

Boy and Spy is simple, but not charming. It sounds like the type of story a five year old would write. Here's a list of the problems in just the first chapter.

The opening line is: "The boy is running as fast as he can." This is followed by running away from a soldier, running through a flock of pigeons, then the soldier yells "Halt!" (FYI, yes, that's exactly the order and pretty much how it was said.)

The opening line is so, so weak. But the following lines are just as boring. How about: "Antonio charges through a flock of pigeons"? Sure, it's no masterpiece, but it summaries the first three paragraphs without exposition.
Arena seems to have a problem with calling the protagonist by his name. He's referred to as "the boy" more than "Antonio." I have no connection to "the boy". If I wasn't familiar with the author's style, I would have thought this character was a throwaway one before we got to Antonio.
Too much telling. Every emotion, every thought is told, not shown. If Antonio is angry, we are told he is angry. If he's sad, we're told he's sad. There's nothing of even clenching fists, trembling, tears rolling down cheeks. No, everything is explicit.

Granted, it's a middle-grade book and I'm not the target audience. But it shouldn't be toned down to this level. I wrote a whole post about annoying things authors do in MG books you can check out!

2. Blank, illogical characters

What do I remember of Antonio? Nothing - except that he was illogical and ruined everything. He had no personality, no unique voice, nothing. I could almost taste cabbage soup bleached of flavour.

He was eternally annoying because of his consistent refusal to do the logical thing. It was as if the author needed Antonio to do certain things and tried to make it work by Antonio's fickle emotions. I get that Antonio's a kid, but that brings up another problem.

The spy is a middle aged American. He's not a kid, but he's not quick on the uptake. Especially considering that he's a spy. (I can't remember his name, so let's call him Carl.) The moment Carl meets Antonio, he tells Antonio everything about himself. He's a spy, he needs a certain thing, reveals his weakness, etc.

You're a spy, Carl, manipulate Antonio or something. Remember that Carl is spying on Antonio's homeland. Antonio isn't fully accepted into his society, but that's thanks to forced conflict. There's no motivation for Antonio to help Carl, but he does.

To be fair, Antonio does end up making things worse. Carl gets payback for making a poor decision. But in the end, everything turns out to be okay. There's no karma. Antonio doesn't pay the consequences of his stupidity beyond a temporary displacement.

The supporting cast was also forgettable, except for the girl character who seemed like the love interest. She had some spice in her, but she also had no motivation, no goal. No one was compelling. Because of that, the plot was largely made of contrived conflict.

3. Cool concept, terrible execution

If there was one thing I would recommend about The Boy and the Spy is its premise. It's a war story from the viewpoint of an Italian boy in Italy and WW2 Italian problems. It's a perspective I've never seen anywhere else.

But everything else about it disappointed me. Prose, plot, characters...*sigh*

I really can't say anything more about it.

~

It's been a while since I read The Boy and the Spy, so there's things I know I've forgotten to mention. That says how bland I found it. But enough complaining, March is coming up and I'm excited for the posts I have planned! Here's to hoping March's books are better!

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