Boy Proof

Castellucci, Cecil. Boy Proof. 2005. 203 p. ISBN 0763623334. FIC CAS on the library shelves

Victoria Jurgen, also known as Egg, knows all of the right answers to life. She’s always in control of herself and of her environment. She also can’t be bothered with friends as the emotional investment is just too high for people she really can’t relate to. She’s renamed herself Egg, after her favorite character in her favorite movie Terminal Earth, and dresses like her: shaved head, highlighted eyebrows, large black cloak. She spends time once a week with her father in his workshop. He creates masks and makeup designs for major Hollywood movies. The rest of the week she’s with her mother, former movie superstar Ursula Denton, who is too preoccupied with her own career to pay much attention to Victoria. And that’s the way Victoria likes it: invisible, boy-proof.

When newly arrived Max Carter sits next to her in Global history class, Victoria’s world begins to fall apart. Her invisibility disappears and her boy-proof shield begins straining under the relentless attention that Max gives her. For her part, Victoria is also interested, but can’t bring herself to break the personality she constructed to protect herself from the world. Will Victoria manage to surface again from the shadows where she hid herself, or will she remain Egg and ignore the world and those who would be her friends and more?