by Lenore Appelhans
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
Riley is a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, and that’s all he was ever supposed to be. He lives in TropeTown, where everyone is a cliche character to be used in books. After breaking the rules and going off-script, Riley is sent to mandatory group therapy with other Manic Pixies. He meets and falls for Zelda, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl also in the group. As Riley gets to know Zelda and the other Manic Pixies in therapy, they find out their trope is on the brink of being terminated and must find a way to save it. There are plenty of Manic Pixie hijinks along the way, in a book that shows the joy in being yourself.
THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM BOY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT by Lenore Appelhans is fun, quirky, and everything you expect from a book about Manic Pixie Dream Girls/Boy. Yet it is also deep and introspective. The book explores and deconstructs the Manic Pixie trope, briefly covering some other tropes as well. As a YA book that parodies YA tropes, THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM BOY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT is naturally quite self aware; Riley breaks the fourth wall multiple times. This wonderful mix of qualities make this a pretty unique and interesting book. I really enjoyed reading it, and if you like subversions of typical YA stories, you will too.
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