Year 9, Book 124

124. Mobile Library by David Whitehouse

The Mobile Library is a kind of absurdist novel, but one with heart. Bobby Nusku’s mother has left, his father beats him, and his classmates bully him. He has no friends until a boy name Sunny befriends him and they hatch a plan to turn Sunny into a cyborg who will protect Bobby. Meanwhile Bobby also befriends Rosa, a disabled girl who lives on his street. Her mother Val takes Bobby under her wing and the three of them eventually run off in the mobile library Val was hired to clean until the city decided to shut it down. Along the way they pick up an ex-soldier named Joe who has some secrets of his own. For awhile they become an unlikely family on the run from the heartache in their lives. The book is rather ridiculous and I didn’t particularly care for it, though I did appreciate how everything came together in the end. I give it a 4 out of 10.