Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart

Fly on the Wall by E. Lockhart
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

At the Manhattan School of Art and Music, where everyone is unique, Gretchen Yee feels ordinary. It doesn't help that she's known as the shy girl who sits alone at lunch, drawing pictures of her favourite superhero, just so she won't have to talk to anyone.

It's no surprise that Gretchen isn't exactly successful in the boy department. Her ex-boyfriend is a cold-fish-sometimes-flirty ex who she can't stop bumping into. Plus, she has a massive crush on a boy named, Titus but is too scared to make the first move. One minute he seems like a sensitive guy, the next, he's a completely different person when he's with his friends. She can't seem to figure boys out!

Gretchen has one wish: to be a fly on the wall in the boy's locker room. What are boys really like? What do they talk about?

This is the story of how one girl's wish came true.


When I heard e.lockhart had another one of her books rebranded by Hot Key books and it was one I hadn't read I couldn't wait to get my teeth stuck into it. My favourite has been We Were Liars of hers and to be honest I haven't read another that has come close yet. Unfortunately this doesn't make it into the same league of that book either.

I thought this sounded really interesting 'fly on the wall' scenario, when has anyone not wished they could be a fly on the wall at some time in their lives. This was just that though, the story was split into three sections. To be honest I found it difficult to link these all together and how they fit together. The first section we learn about Gretchen, who is a normal girl who goes to an artsy school, she knows little about boys and is always falling out with her friends. Gretchen makes a wish to be a fly on the wall and for some reason this actually comes true. This is the major issue for me, it is completely unbelievable, which would be fine if this was explained as to how this happened and for me this was a big fail.

The whole middle section is about Gretchen being this fly on the wall, the things she sees and hears on the wall of the boys locker room. Some of this is amusing, however some of the language used to describe parts of the anatomy I found was very immature.

The third section links a little more with the first but we still didn't know exactly how this all happened. This was a very short read at just over 170 page. I read this in a couple of hours and it did pass the time. I would not recommend this to older teenagers as I think they may find it a little irritating.

This book was O.K and only O.K I wouldn't be reading this again, which is a shame as I loved e. Lockharts We Were Liars, I am still trying to find another of hers, which holds up to this.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.