Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Ryan, “a 22-year-old virgin,” can turn into a fly. Cassandra Place,
a waitress in a Toronto greasy spoon called Sok, can make things and
people disappear. These facts, believe it or not, are nearly tangential
to the plot of Munroe’s sexy and off-the-wall first novel. Ryan is
Holden Caulfield at warp speed—flaky, hip, living in a world of single
moms, aliens, public demonstrations, and unrepentant cigarette
companies. Having come to terms with his strange gift mostly by ignoring
it, Ryan is stimulated by Cassandra into imitating the heroic Japanese
anime Sailor Moon by doing battle with the forces of evil. Munroe’s
story, however, is not merely one of good versus bad. It is
neogenerational and anarchic in a somehow sweet and innocent way, its
youthful heroes drowning in an antagonistic world, only to resuscitate
one another with sex, love, and honesty. A quirky, funny book.
Recommended.