Punkzilla by Adam Rapp

A guest review from Teen Room Staff Brandon!

Jamie, a.k.a. “Punkzilla,” is on a mission. His mission: to visit his brother Peter before he dies of cancer in Memphis, Tennessee; not an easy trek for a fourteen-year old boy who has gone AWOL from his military boarding school. As he journeys to Tennessee, he writes his deepest thoughts in the form of letters to his friends and family: his brother, his mom, his dad, and his best friends Branson and Buck Tooth Jenny. Punkzilla chronicles important events in his life, as well as the events of the bus trip from Portland, Oregon to Memphis. He tells his brother of his times working for Fat Larkin stealing iPods and iPhones to make a quick buck. In turn, Peter tells Jamie about his cancer and how it feels to near the end. Intermingled between the main letters of Jamie and Peter are Jamie’s letters to and from his other family and friends.

Punkzilla was interesting content-wise, but the writing style really turned me off from this book, so much that I couldn’t even finish it. It is written primarily in the style that a fourteen-year old writing on a Greyhound would write. This means the book has many run-on sentences and is written more so as if it was spoken word. This makes reading the book a little bit troublesome at times.

--Brandon

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