2021 EDIT: I wasn't feeling as much from 'Wonder' as last time. Not positive feelings, anyway.
Great, important lessons are taught, for everyone to learn, but a lot of the book comes across as a little tone-deaf and meanspirited, in my opinion. Like, Auggie and the word "normal" are never associated with each other, ever. Everyone else is described as being normal-looking in comparison to him. But what is normal? I got mixed messages whenever Auggie is described; nearly all the multiple POV sections will go out of their way to mention how shocking, abnormal, weird, scary, and freakish he looks. He's not just different - everybody, even the nice characters and his own family, will bang on and on about his facial deformity like it's the scariest and most inhuman thing in the world to look at. That it's because of his face that he will never be normal, so why bother treating him like everyone else (this sentiment comes directly from his own sister, btw)? Auggie's "scary" face, his "abnormality", his "unlucky" genetics; it all has to be acknowledged as "bad", as "wrong", at any opportunity. It's terrible, and it's almost never called out on. Doesn't this go against the acceptance and kindness message of the book? But then on the same paragraph a contradiction like the following pops up suddenly: 'Here's what I think: the only reason I'm not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.', and, 'I think the only person in the world who realizes how ordinary I am is me.' (both quotes are from the first page.)
Auggie's family obviously loves him very much, but they seem to treat him more like a burden and a nuisance than a person, especially his sister Via. His life is made harder than others, and it is not his fault. It's society's. But his very existence is repeatedly treated like an unpleasantness, at best. He's a blot; he's what's preventing most characters' lives from being happy, because of the way he looks. School bullies like Julian are bad - most kids can be very mean, and they know it - but grown-arse adults like Julian's mother are even worse. No long-term comeuppance for those two evil people.
Auggie is just a kid, and I don't think any of the other characters fully grasp that fact at the end.
The ending is rather patronising and unrealistic, too. I hated being reminded of how much of a hellhole school was while I was reading 'Wonder' as a quarantined adult, but then for it to contrive that ending, which I know would never happen, least of all to targets/ victims like Auggie and severe outcasts/invisibles/targets like myself...I felt it wasn't a particularly good or honest representation of life at all. Schools - freaking teachers - are never that kind, thoughtful and understanding! Children's story or no, happy, perfect endings don't exist like that anywhere.
Plus, that philosophy quote about always choosing to be kind over being right, as if those two criterion are mutually exclusive. Like, to be kind to people is often the right thing to do. It's basic human decency. The quote is like that whole "Facts don't care about your feelings" bullshit all over again. Kind people do care about facts and the truth - it's what makes them sympathetic, empathetic, openminded and understanding. I don't agree with the quote's core concept - the supposed theme of 'Wonder' - is what I'm trying to explain.
Although 'Wonder' isn't perfect, it does contain enough human truths and lessons in altruism that I won't discourage anyone from reading it. I know it is an important book to many, many people, and it's easy to see why. It might be depressing for some, a mixed mess for others, but it is uplifting and affirming for others more.
Read it and make up your own mind.
Final Score: 3/5
Original Review:
"Your deeds are your monuments" - one of Mr Browne's precepts.
I wanted to get my hands on 'Wonder' because of all the praise. I thought it would be like 'My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece', a book I love very much.
'Wonder' is a quick read guaranteed to give you so many mixed emotions that catharsis would be a necessity. Though it's not as satisfactory as 'My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece'.
When reading 'Wonder', at first I thought it would be told entirely from the POV of the protag, August Pullman, and how he lives a life of someone born with a face no stranger would accept as being normal. I already grasped the hopeful and sweet yet realistic feel from the characters and their relationships with Auggie, but I was worried the middle school story would get boring and predictable quickly.
Then it changed POVs. We get to hear the story of August from the perspective of his older sister Via, his school friends Summer and Jack, Via's boyfriend Justin and estranged friend Miranda, and lastly back to August himself, and how going to school has changed his life for the better and not for the worst. We get to know how other people feel about his face, and they react to it in different ways - ways in which any person would; but more specifically young people just getting to know the world.
Kids are mean, we all know that. And school is a breeding ground for bullies. They hate and ridicule anything that is outside the realm of "normal". They are afraid of change and difference. So it is hard not to feel sorry for August when, at the age of ten, he starts school; like any other kid. He is like any other kid - he loves 'Star Wars' and his pet dog Daisy, and he thinks and talks like a normal, happy boy. However other kids - and adults, for that matter - won't likely see him as such: they will only see his deformed face. They will avoid him, whisper about him when he is near, call him a freak (among other horrible names), and have panic attacks or flee at the prospect of having skin contact with him.
But while there are nasty people in 'Wonder', there is hope in the form of lovely and understanding kids and adults as well. August's parents are perhaps the best I've ever read in fiction - they love Auggie for who he is on the inside, and do everything they can to make him happy. However their weakness is overprotecting him: they went back and forth on sending him to school in the first place, though it was mainly for medical reasons that they kept him from attending. Auggie has had many operations on his face, though it still scares people. Though they treat him like a little kid out of fear for his self-esteem, I think August is lucky to have parents like Isabel and Nate - they care for their son, as he is a good sport.
Via, as she grows older, starts to see how others see her brother. She feels terrible about it, because she too had always been protective of him when others stare or whisper about him in public. She finds she can't understand him anymore like she used to, due to school popularity pressures. As a teenager, she feels lonely that her parents pay more attention to Auggie than her, and she may begin to resent him for it. Via's childhood friends are changing and distancing themselves from her, and she can confide in no one but the memory of her deceased grandmother. Her character is very real and three-dimensional.
Other kids at August's school also have different reactions to the new kid with the deformed face. Many are, again, realistic yet hopeful - hopeful that, thanks to August and his general sense of fun, they will grow up to be tolerant and openminded people. Unlike some of the adults in this book who didn't learn from childhood that you should not judge others by their appearances alone.
'Wonder''s chapters are very short, episodic like a children's soap opera, and punchy. Each beats with emotional and relatable events, especially ones set in the middle and secondary schools. Indeed, anyone who has been to school will feel what August or the other POV characters are feeling in their lives amongst the horrible people of any age.
'Wonder' is not perfect, however. Some events happen too conveniently; most of all near the end. Maybe I'm a little cynical, but the book is somewhat too hopeful and uplifting, especially with its subject matter. The characters may be realistic (mostly) but the events feel a little planned out, so it can reach a happy conclusion. Really, why couldn't my middle school have been as nice and encouraging as August's!
And I'm still not quite sure if 'Wonder' is a children's book or YA or both.
Another convenience that irks me a bit is the school bully's mother just happens to be a member of the school committee board, so of course the bully can get away with murder, as long as mummy says that everything wrong is the bullied kid's fault.
But aside from little imperfections, 'Wonder' is a profound treat, with likeable and relatable characters, an important message, and other cute touches. It is a sweet book that can be both sad and uplifting, and even funny in a lot of places. It teaches us about different sides to human nature.
Remember, it is what you do for yourself and for others that defines you as a person. What you look like does not matter.
'Wonder' knows about childhood and unfairness, and it looks on hopefully at the future.
Final Score: 4/5
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