Boy Toy, Barry Lyga

Lyga, Barry (2007).
Boy Toy
Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9780618723935
Genre: Realistic Fiction

After five years of fighting his way past flickers of memory about the teacher who molested him and the incident that brought the crime to light, eighteen-year-old Josh gets help coping with his molester’s release from prison when he finally tells his best friend the truth.
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Eighteen-year-old Josh is getting ready to play the biggest baseball game of his career, graduate from high school, and decide on which college to attend when he learns that the teacher who molested him when he was twelve years old is soon to be paroled. He avoids talking about his feelings until his former best friend Rachel forces him to share what happened before their disastrous game of spin the bottle when they were thirteen. When Josh turned thirteen, he had a small party with his close friends, Zik, Michelle and Rachel. An awkward game of spin the bottle and a few minutes in the closet with Rachel ensue. When Rachel kisses Josh, Josh responds in a much more aggressive manner, and Rachel runs crying to her parents. When a nervous and confused Josh responds that “Eve likes it,” Josh’s experiences and situation are brought to the attention of his family and the whole town. As Josh tells Rachel how everything happened, readers learn that Josh’s young, attractive, married history teacher Eve befriended a twelve-year-old Josh and his family. Josh thinks he has fallen in love with Eve, and even though he knows what he is doing is wrong, he follows his heart and hormones. In fact, Josh thinks he has seduced Eve when in fact it is she that has preyed upon him. Josh’s twelve-year-old voice captures the innocence and sexual awakening of an adolescent who is experiencing puberty. Even though Josh undergoes years of therapy, it is his confession to Rachel which allows him to face his past so that he may pursue his future. The novel contains many riveting scenes: Eve’s distraught husband attacks and beats twelve year old Josh to a pulp; Josh confuses a middle aged woman with a child as a newly released Eve and his possible child; his coach taunts him into running faster by exclaiming “you didn’t sleep with me!” and Josh punches his coach out; Josh experiences many “flickers” or memories of what happened with Eve on many different occasions and confuses his memories with reality; however, the most riveting scene is when Josh confronts a recently released Eve. The narrative is well-paced and tightly written with the shorter “present” chapters versus the longer “past” chapters. The inclusion of Josh’s baseball prowess and future career lightens the material while demonstrating Josh’s need for control and escape.