Fly on the Wall: How One Girl Saw Everything

by E. Lockhart

Book Overview

"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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385732821
• ISBN13: 9780385732826
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

So good, read in one sitting!

This book was hilarious. The protagonist, Gretchen Yee tells the story in a comical and often endearingly cynical voice. The characters in this book are relatable, and we end up rooting for them to succeed. It's so funny and cute at the same time. I read it in one sitting. And at the end, I found myself looking for my own, 'Titus, titus, titus.' in my own life. Read it! Awesome book. :)

E. Lockhart always delivers

I liked this book very much and while it wasn't my favorite by her, I still liked it. It teaches us that appearances can be deceiving and that we should be more understanding of others. Also that the way other people see us is not the same as the way we see ourselves. I am a teenager and I completely disagree with the parents who say this book is "pornographic". Trust me, if your kid goes to high school, he/ she already knows way more than you think. Anyway, I recommend reading this book by E. but also the rest of her books because they are even better.

Be Careful What You Wish...

Nonconformity is rule at the Manhattan High School for the Arts, better known as Ma-Ha, but Gretchen Yee doesn't fit in (even with her fire engine red hair) - she's only ordinary. She's got one best friend names Katya, a secret crush on Titus, a whole bunch of junk in her room (though she wouldn't call it that), and a love for drawing cartoon-style. But with one ill-made wish, Gretchen has a lot more to worry about than her parents' divorce: she's somehow been transformed into a housefly in the boys' locker room, of all places. While Gretchen's trapped there, she learns all sorts of nifty facts about the male anatomy as well as what lies behind their physical appearances. Fly on the Wall was truly an enjoyable book for me to read. Gretchen's character is very real; she deals with problems girls go through every day (except when she's a fly of course!) such a boy and friendship troubles. It also helps that Gretchen's reactions to the world around her and her experiences as a fly were hilarious. Lockhart has a way of slipping significant messages into her writing while making the story witty and fun to read, and Fly on the Wall is no different. While I did not like Fly on the Wall as much as I liked her more recent novel, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, I did enjoy the story nonetheless. I recommend this book if you are looking for something short and sweet.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Sixteen-year old Gretchen Yee is a pretty typical teenager. Sort of. She attends the Manhattan High School for the Arts, otherwise known as Ma-Ha. There, she gets to take not only the normal, everyday classes of Literature and PE, but also Drawing and Sculpture. Gretchen is a great artist, and she's especially partial to the comic-book style of drawing. Not to mention that her personal hero is Spiderman. She has a best friend name Katya, who now seems to spend all her time either hanging out with the poseurs behind the school, smoking cigarettes, or babysitting her three younger sisters. When it comes to the opposite sex, though, Gretchen has no idea what she's doing. Actually, she doesn't even know what they're doing half the time. Her parents are in the throes of a divorce, she has no close male friends, and her kind-of ex-boyfriend, Shane, now spends most of his time acting like an idiot. How can she ever know what goes on inside a guy's head when they act like such total morons most of the time? After casually mentioning one day after school that she wished she could be a fly on the wall in the boy's locker room, something really, really strange happens. Gretchen wakes up the next morning as, you guessed it, a fly on the wall of the boy's locker room. Never mind the fact that she can't wrap her mind (her own mind, thank goodness, not a fly mind) around what's happened, now she spends several hours every day seeing high-school guys get naked! In front of her! Without clothes! And she can't close her eyes because her fly-body has no eyelids! Needless to say, the things Gretchen sees and hears inside the boy's locker room at Ma-Ha are (ha!ha!) eye-opening, to say the least. Who knew that Titus, the object of her undying affections, gets tired of hearing his friends talk bad about homosexuals? Or that Malachy, a guy she'd never paid much attention to before, has secretly been dating her best friend? Or that one of the Art Poseurs is [..] Or that she'd spent so much time wondering if she was invisible, all the time being crushed on by a guy she'd never seen before? FLY ON THE WALL is funny, honest, and a totally fun read. Who wouldn't wish, just once, to have a fly's-eye-view of the inner sanctum of the teenage male? For Gretchen, her time as a fly teaches her a lot about not only the male species, but her own wishes, desires, and needs. A real winner! Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

A great read for teens

The idea that a simple wish will transform you into an insect stuck in the boy's locker room is the premise behind E. Lockhart's book, Fly on the Wall. But the story goes well beyond that concept. The writing is engaging, truthful, and funny. Gretchen Kaufman Yee starts off as a self-described ordinary girl. She attends an artsy public school in Manhattan where most of her classmates are trying to be anything but ordinary. Her mother is Jewish, her dad Chinese-American. When they haphazardly announce their impending divorce, Gretchen becomes furious and suspicious that her dad is a cheater and her mom too self-involved to hold the marriage together. Gretchen's only consolation are her collections of picture books, Japanese dolls, comic book collectibles, and her incessant drawing of Spider-man and other favorite Marvel® Comic Book characters. At school things aren't any better. Her best friend Katya has recently begun to avoid her, her crush Titus isn't giving her any signs of liking her back, her kind-of ex-boyfriend Shane is tongue-tied with his new girlfriend, and her teachers are constantly asking that she explore her drawing beyond the comic book style of Spidey and his arch-nemesis Venom. When her parents go away for a week on a vacation and a business trip, respectively, Gretchen is left on her own, and a simple wish to become a fly on the wall in the boy's locker room suddenly befits her with tiny, flimsy transparent wings and eyes in the back of her head. All she wants is to better understand what boys are truly like. During her week as a fly she gets to see which boys are bullies, which are insecure, which don't care and are insensitive, and which haven't come out of the closet. She also gets to study the mysterious male anatomy. Although this part of the book is highly-descriptive, Gretchen's character gets beyond this new revelation and she finds out that although she can't change the entire world like her comic book heroes, she can make the lives of those she loves a lot brighter. Once she returns to her life Gretchen becomes a superhero in her own right and she understands and accepts herself a lot better than before becoming a fly. Young readers will enjoy the humor, honesty, and bravery with which Gretchen tells her story. She is truly a character that many will identify with, and that most will not easily forget.