I liked this. It comes with content warnings for homophobia and violence, which definitely need to be heeded because there's a lot of that in this. I really felt for the main character with dealing with the bullies and having to find his own ways to do things because he knows authority figures would not be able to help or would make it worse. I appreciated his mother, who loves her kid and is one of the only people he's out to, but is just SO busy trying to keep a roof over their head that he can't talk to her about his problems. I like that as soon as he has a pay check he feels the need to share it with homeless people. I liked that the reason he has to get back at the bullies is because the bicycle they stole was his father's, and it's the only thing he has to remember his father.

So there are a lot of things I like about this book. But I was kind of annoyed by the timeline of this story - like, I think only like 2 or 3 weeks pass, and in that time he gets beat up, learns how to box, gains muscle, the side characters manage to finish a comic (granted I have no idea how far before the story they started on the comic or how long it is). But like, if someone kicked my in the ribs and gave me a black eye that'd take me 2 weeks to heal from. This kid healed in like 2 days, started jogging and was toned from jogging in a few days, started doing intensive boxing and not once did he need a rest day because his arms were jelly. A car gets fucked up by the bullies and the car gets fixed in like one day. Like?? What is this super-human healing, and where did they find that mechanic??