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I did think of starting this review with just the words "''believe the hype"'', but as I write I'm a very early adopter of this must-read, and there are not many people joining me in lauding it yet. And anyway the word "''hype" '' contains as much connection to reality as "''glamour"''. "''Glamour" '' is the false, the pretence that might make you look beautiful, and not the real thing. "''Hype" '' is not the real thing, either – connections to "''hyperbole" '' and so on show it to be similarly fake. And with this book, and this main character, the fact people don't see the reality beneath the surface is key.
So, erm, "''believe the reality"''.
This is a very impressive read, is the reality, as it does a lot of what mainstream teen and tween fiction still struggles with. Its focus is courtesy of the first person narration from Fly, a secondary school lad with cerebral palsy, a down-on-her-luck single mom nearing retirement from being a cleaner, a carer while at school, and a bundle of assumptions people lay on him. First they assume that with a broken body comes a broken mind, then they decide he's a maths savant – they even believe they can get away with calling him Fly, which isn't his real name, but everybody just uses it.