Girl Woes

Markus Zusak's Getting the Girl follows the hardships of Cameron Wolfe, the youngest of the four Wolfe siblings, who is constantly in his brother, Ruben's, shadow.  Cameron is considered by most to be the least productive of his family, as well as the child with the least potential.  He is always trying to prove himself in one way or another, yet he keeps his true self buried deep inside for fear of familial reactions.  Ruben, on the other hand, is a cocky ladies man who women seem to love despite his notoriously slick attitude.  Because of this, Cameron looks up to his brother, even going so far as to develop feelings for some of Ruben's previous girlfriends.  When Octavia, one of Ruben's many conquests, comes into the picture, Cameron falls hard.  He spends his time fantasizing about Octavia and becoming increasingly jealous of Ruben.  Only this time Ruben's picked the wrong girl to pursue and he's soon on the wrong end of a verbally abusive tirade with an ex-boyfriend.  Needless to say things get all wonky from that point on and the characters take some pretty crazy turns, all leading to an interesting and memorable end.

I was really excited for this read.  The synopsis sounded promising and Zusak is the author of one of my favorite books, The Book Thief.  However, I was pretty ho-hum by the time I finished it.  The book was a very quick read, but I didn't really believe any of the characters.  I really disliked Ruben, and Cameron's older brother, Steve, for that matter.  Cameron's parents were pretty non-existent.  Octavia kind of struck me as a little hussy.  The only member of the family I liked was Cameron's sister, Sarah.  She was compassionate and truly "got" Cameron and his hidden love for prose.  Also, I really felt sorry for Cameron.  He was constantly in the shadows and it wasn't until he started writing that he developed his own sense of self-worth.  I did like the ending of the book though, so that's a plus.