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    Fly on the Wall
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    Fly on the Wall
    Unavailable
    Fly on the Wall
    Audiobook4 hours

    Fly on the Wall

    Written by E. Lockhart

    Narrated by Caitlin Greer

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "I think this might be the best YA novel . . . I've ever read." -John Green

    From E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars-the New York Times bestselling phenomenon-and the uproarious and heartwarming Ruby Oliver books, comes a fast-paced and hysterically funny novel that answers the question: What would it be like to be a fly on the wall in the boy's locker room?

    At the Manhattan School for Art and Music, where everyone is "different" and everyone is "special," Gretchen Yee feels ordinary. She's the kind of girl who sits alone at lunch, drawing pictures of Spider-Man, so she won't have to talk to anyone; who has a crush on Titus but won't do anything about it; who has no one to hang out with when her best (and only real) friend Katya is busy.

    One day, Gretchen wishes that she could be a fly on the wall in the boys' locker room-just to learn more about guys. What are they really like? What do they really talk about? Are they really cretins most of the time?

    Fly on the Wall is the story of how that wish comes true.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 14, 2006
    ISBN9780307284105
    Unavailable
    Fly on the Wall
    Author

    E. Lockhart

    E. Lockhart is the author of many YA novels, including We Were Liars and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. She was voted worst driver in her senior class in high school.

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    Reviews for Fly on the Wall

    3.5/5

    220 ratings18 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      One of the drawbacks of reading so many books is that I have extremely high standards since I've read some truly excellent pieces of literature...and also some major duds. I say all of this because I read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 2 years ago and so I know she has the capability to write amazing young adult fiction. I chose Fly on the Wall specifically because the review that I heard on BookTube led me to believe that it was a retelling of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and because I had enjoyed Lockhart's previous book. What I didn't expect was for it to be chock full of really explicit sexual content. Why on earth did she have to describe penises in such revealing detail? And why did she keep referring to them as gherkins?! (And if I ever hear someone call them that or refer to breasts as biscuits I'm going to slap them across the face.) The main character and the person who we view the story from is named Gretchen Yee and she is the prototypical teenage girl filled with angst. She attends a high school that focuses on the arts and her specialty is drawing comic book style characters (hence the cover imagery). Her obsession with a boy in her school leads her to make a foolhardy wish to be a fly on the wall of the boys locker room so that she can find out how he really thinks about her. (And this is where she begins to ogle the boys as they undress for gym class.) I guess the story is supposed to be a character study or a revelation that what we think we know about people can be turned on its head if we see them at their most vulnerable. However, for me it was a letdown and vaguely nauseating. This was a 0/10 for me and I'll have to give serious thought to reading anything else from this author in the future.PS There were also a lot of plot holes in the storyline and the ending truly fell flat.
    • 5/5
      This should be required reading for every young woman.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book.
    • 4/5
      Pretty funny.
      I never read the inside jacket, so when I got to part two it was an unexpected surprise.
      Good stuff.

      I like the colour of the cover too.

    • 3/5
      I liked this book because Gretchen, the main character, was totally unlike me. I realize that's the point of fiction - reading about different people who lead different lives than you, but I feel like I pretty much read the same type of stuff. Gretchen is a half Asian, half Jewish girl going to an arts high school. She loves comic books, and draws exclusively in that style. Her social circle includes just one close friend, and her experience with boys is extremely limited. So, when she wakes up (after reading The Metamorphosis for English class, of course) and finds herself as a fly in the boys' locker room, she learns more than she ever expected to. Overall it's an interesting story with a sweet ending.
    • 3/5
      This book does exactly what it states in the back paragraph, and in the title. It's about a girl, and her seeing everything. While there is quite a fantastical aspect to this story that is never ever explained, the fact that this is a novella means that the author presents the subject matter, keeps it tight and then reveals the aftermath. Very little of the actual story makes sense, as in probability, but at the same time, it touches nicely on what it's like to be a teenager, and something I could relate to despite the fact that I haven't been one for over ten years.The main character Gretchen's thoughts are what drives the entire story forward. It's completely from her perspective, with interwoven direct thoughts slid in there. Sometimes the thoughts aren't placed in the perfect spots, as in they detract from what is happening around her, but I tried to forgive this by putting forward the idea that these thoughts are undoubtedly all thought within a few seconds so not enough for the ones she's interacting with to think that there's anything -up-.The only slight break from it all being from her view is later on when words and actions are being done in front of her without anyone realising she is there. This is where I had a slight problem, as the argument between her best friend and someone else didn't exactly ring true. From what little interaction I had read between her best friend, Katya, and Gretchen, I couldn't exactly see how Katya came to this conclusion, since the actual times they had spent together was minimal. It's explained later why this had to occur, and is part of a plot device, but I would have liked a few more scenes to make this clearer.This book won't really tax the reader, and is simply a quick story to read. While there is nudity, it is carefully toned down so that while the reader can understand the new understanding Gretchen has of the relationship between boys and girls, and what -she- wants, it is talked about. It's a nice way to introduce the reader to the entire concept of sex, and expectations of sex without going into much detail that it would offend anyone at this stage of their life. I would definitely recommend this to readers of a younger age than Lockhart's usual readership, so probably about twelve and thirteen. There are mentions of the body parts on both sides, but this is all spoken of using slang making it slightly less frightening for younger teenagers. I wouldn't state that her other books are quite as -gentle- over the subject, so I'd wait a few years before introducing the other books Lockhart has written to anyone of this age.It's a very good book, and one I would encourage young teeangers all the way up, way past my age, to read. It's a good conversation starter, just to get the reader thinking of what they are going through. It mentions bullying, friendships, sexual orientation (with a good but believable resolution), self-perception vs. actual perception of your peers, stages of relationships, divorce, dealing with adult situations while a teenager, etc (as I've probably forgotten a few).
    • 3/5
      It's short, but doesn't have very much plot. It's supposed to be about a girl who Franz Kafka's into a fly, so she can know what boys are really like, what they talk about, what goes on when girls aren't there turning them into monkey-idiots. The thing is, it doesn't seem like her big problem is understanding boys, but getting people to understand her. She goes to an arts high school where her teacher frowns on her refusal to branch from a comic book style. Her parents spring a divorce on her, then her mom leaves her daughter behind while she goes on a week-long cruise (this makes it convenient to be a fly for a week). She's not boy-crazy, like I'd expect out of a plot like this.It's decent at learning about the gendered Other, but doesn't go as far with the idea as it could and uses too much melodrama. The titular "fly on the wall" literally doesn't leave the locker room, and there is a lot more to teen males than what happens there. It's like studying polar bear behavior only in the zoo. There's a significant portion of the text dedicated to discovering boys' "gherkins". Is this a northeastern thing? I've NEVER heard anyone use the word gherkin, least of all as much as she does. But it's easy and short. I think you'll get something out of it, as long as you're not looking for much.
    • 4/5
      E. Lockhart is one of the best young adult novelists writing today. She is somehow able to capture what it is like to be a teenager -- complete with family issues and tension, friendship problems and boy-angst. She writes in a way that is fun, easy to read and humorous. Fly on the Wall is not my favorite of Lockhart, but it is darned good.

      Fly on the Wall is a very short book, the audio is only about 5 hours but is superbly done. The setting is New York City and an art based charter school. The main character sees herself like most teenage girls do -- full of flaws. She wonders why her best friend won't call her back and wishes that the boy she likes would notice her. She wants her parents to stay together and stop fighting. And she can't figure out how to clean her room.

      I went blind into this book, reading it only because it was written by E. Lockhart. But this book has an element of magical realism, somehow, improbably the main character spends a week as a fly on the wall in the boys locker room. The set-up seems crazy, but Lockhart makes it work. The week spent as a fly is surprisingly not gross and Gretchen makes some silly discoveries (hey those cute boys have lots of imperfections too! boys are shy in the locker room too! why do the boys have more space than the girls?)

      Fans of realistic (yes, even though she turns into a fly) young adult fiction would enjoy this book.
    • 3/5
      Narrated by Caitlin Greer. Would-be censors alert: A whole chapter describing penises and boys' butts! Gretchen attends an art high school in Manhattan, feeling ordinary and invisible. After she wishes aloud she could be a fly on the wall in the locker room to learn more about what makes boys tick, she wakes up one morning as a fly in said locker room. Of course, the first thing she zooms in on are the boys' privates. The premise of the story is intriguing; most girls do wish they understood why boys are like that and what a great way to spy on them unnoticed. Outside of the metamorphosis, I found this a routine YA novel, standard stuff for the romantically yearning girl, and slow to start. And I wished certain of the boys Gretchen spies on would have gotten some comeuppance for their loutish behavior. Gretchen finally gets her man and wins locker-room equality for the girls, but nothing really happens to the gay-bashers and bullies.
    • 3/5
      I choose this book because I wanted to read a book in one evening. I heard some good things about it and it would be funny so I tried it. I liked the story. The best part in the book is the part where she is the fly on the wall and rates the boys. It's just for once not the boys who rates the girls and i liked that :) I didn't really laughed but I enjoyed reading it. But it's too bad that the story is so short. Ok , that was a big reason to read it, but I had the feeling that the author could have get more out of the story. I found that the part where she is fly, ended too soon. I would've liked it if it was longer and happened more :)

      So it's not the best book in the world in my opinion, but nice to read sometime :)
    • 3/5
      This story was more of an essay or excercise than a full book, though most of my disappointment probably stems from how much I enjoy E. Lockhart's characters. At the end I wanted more Gretchen.
    • 5/5
      I *loved* this book. I almost didn’t want to read it because the cover made it look kind of silly or frivolous or something. But it wasn’t, not at all. It was fun, but also serious, and felt very real and true and enlightening throughout. The voice was perfect and I was immediately right there in Gretchen’s world and believed everything, including all the stuff she heard/saw in the locker room. I liked the way Lockhart used line breaks throughout to capture the feeling of Gretchen’s thought patterns, and the italics vs. roman for thoughts vs. narrative worked great too. Excellent, excellent read, all around. I hope her other stuff is this good, because now I want to read all of it.
    • 3/5
      Gretchen's wish to be a fly on the wall in the boys locker room coems true, giving her insights into more than just male anatomy. This was fun, I enjoyed it, it felt a little slight and a little predictable. But a nifty highschool story about fitting in and standing out. I'd give this for younger teens looking for something entertaining about relationships or boys.
    • 4/5
      When Gretchen Yee, a student at the Manhattan School for Art and Music, wishes she were a fly on the wall of the boys' locker room, she never expects her wish to come true in such a dramatic way. (CIP)This book was very good. It's what you think but it's not what you think.. A very good read..
    • 4/5
      I would recommend this book to older teenage girls... if I was in a less conservative area. The boy you have a crush on just might be insecure...
    • 5/5
      Very cute fairy tale for teens. Enjoyable, quick read, highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      This book so far is about a girl whose parents get divorced. She goes to an art school because she is very talented. She is a pack rat with her collections of many miscellaneous items. When she is told that her parents are getting divorced she must get rid of her things. For her that is a big deal because she enjoys her cluttered room.
    • 3/5
      i think it is a good book but it is sort of weird. if you want to no what guys think and stuff this is a good book for you.