Edited

Mike Grayson is desperately in love with Phil, a girl he clumsily drives away. Meanwhile, his best friend, George, discovers that Mike and Phil are actually characters in a novel by a deceased author named Barry Lyga. With that, the book takes a deep dive into metafiction as the two boys manage to meet George's favorite YA author, Gayl Rybar---an anagram for, yes, Barry Lyga, who is very much alive. They then meet another Barry Lyga, ostensibly the real one, who launches an extended meditation on the novel as a literary form, which slows the plot's forward motion and invites the occasional yawn from the reader. That aside, the novel is extremely well written and the characters are sympathetic, especially Mike's best friend, George. Adding to the experimental quality of this novel is its simultaneous release with Unedited, the unedited version of this very book. Lyga's legions of fans will welcome his offbeat latest, which will also appeal to readers of Scott Westerfeld's Afterworlds (2014) and teachers looking for fresh writing-workshop material.

In a considerably abridged version of his co-published Unedited (2022), the author personally steps into a first-love YA novel to school a fictional teenager in assumed agency. Awash in unrequited love for classmate Philomel, Mike is devastated to feel her drift away as high school gives way to college…until the discovery that he can alter past events leads him to hope for a replayed scene somewhere along the line that will transform her feelings for him. Not gonna happen, says Lyga, strolling into view as the original plot gives way to a guided tour of the writer's mind and process. Supported by a putative Editor who chimes in occasionally, plus two alternate versions of himself, Lyga affirms his godlike powers to shape invented characters despite their protestations. "The only character in the book who is fully realized and actually matters is me," he writes, explaining to Mike that he's just a self-centered adolescent naif when it comes to real love, but it would spoil the story to write his heartbreak out. How this coldly analytical line of reasoning will go over with teens is easy to guess, as is the reaction to the way Phil is intentionally left, even in a tacked-on single chapter of her own, as a paper cutout who is more described than shown. Aspiring writers may appreciate this look backstage. The entire cast reads White. Part star-crossed love story, part creative writing seminar. (Metafiction. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.