This Boy by Lauren Myracle (The Infinite Moment of Us; Shine) convincingly charts a young man's four years of high school as he bonds with his best friend, navigates coupledom and struggles to recover when loss tips him into drug addiction.
Paul and Roby typify high school best bros: they destroy each other in video games, try (and fail) to impress girls and dream of rooming together in college. Though they fall "out of sync" over Paul's girlfriend, the boys quickly return to status quo. Roby, never "afraid of looking ridiculous," cracks Paul up but can also deliver a "proper roasting": he tuts over Paul's purple drank habit but blatantly discourages Xanax and cocaine. Then, when Paul loses someone, he turns against Roby's advice and toward benzodiazepines and alcohol. Living in "teeth-gritting pain" and tortuously "elasticized moments," Paul feels dead inside as he searches for a way out.
Lauren Myracle's characters are perfectly pitched. Paul overshares, describing nose picks, farts, wiping Cheetos dust on his couch, masturbation and sex, lending credibility to his first-person narrative. He reflects on how his perception of girls is influenced by societal norms and biological drives, wondering whether some "girls like it when guys look at them," thinking it's "unfair to blame all males for the behavior of some males" and admitting, "I think about sex when I don't want to think about sex." In a tactful tonal shift, Myracle juxtaposes teenage shenanigans with a terrible death and a sobering reminder of a mounting drug crisis. Dripping with authenticity, This Boy is a frank depiction of the way recovering from grief and substance abuse can expand a person's world and force them to reevaluate themselves. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer