Lani Garver is a new kid and a misfit. Claire McKenzie and her best friend Macy are unsure whether Lani is a boy or a girl. But this does not stop Claire from befriending him, even though the small island town of Hackett does not like outsiders ( )

I was just re-reading this book. I'm a lot older now than I was when I first read it, and the book definitely made me think more than the last time I read it. I found myself admiring Lani for his bravery and opinionated lifestyle rather than the fact that he felt the need to avoid being defined or forced into boxes . I found myself hating Tony even more, for his cowardice. I find myself less satisfied than ever about the ending of the book. But I would still recommend it to my greatest friend or my worst enemy in a heartbeat. ( )

Claire deals with an eating disorder and dysfunctional family with the help of possible angel Lani Garver, who may need her help in return. This is a moving book. Claire’s life is falling apart around her—her mother is an alcoholic, she’s recovering from cancer, she’s developed anorexia…anyone going through any issue will relate to her. Lani, on the other hand, though having been a runaway and faced prejudice, has used his hardships to become stronger and help others. Normally someone so perfect would be easy to hate, but Lani is so real—he is very smart but faces gay-bashing because of his androgyny—that it is easy to fall in love with him. It is possible for the reader to see himself in Lani, wiser and stronger because of his difficulties. However, there are so many issues going on in this book that none are fully developed. It is easy to forget about Claire’s cancer or anorexia until it’s explicitly mentioned again, if it even is. In addition, the twists, especially at the end, may actually be too clever for their own good. The author comes across as being afraid to make a decision—is Lani any angel or not? Did he drown or not? The questions are repeatedly batted around with no definitive answer, leaving the reader wanting. The book is beautiful and enjoyable as long as the reader doesn’t think too hard about it. ( )

The main thing I took away from this book was a sense of deep disquiet at the extent to which people will go to keep their realities “convenient.” This is a recurring theme throughout the novel, and while at times I think it is a little too overdone – too bluntly stated – it certainly raises some very interesting points...Plum-Ucci plays on innate human fears of the unknown and unclassifiable, showing us what can happen when we are pushed out of our comfortable, known world and into a reality which is infinitely less convenient. [ full review on my bloghref> ] ( )

This book was hauntingly good, in my opinion. You know right from the start that something horrible is going to happen to Lani, so everything in the book feels like foreshadowing. Watching Lani and Claire hurdle toward this inevitable end is heartbreaking, even as you cheer on Lani's continual "I don't care what they think" attitude. Claire is a bit more cautious than he is. As she grows and changes over the course of the novel she cares less and less what her friends and the fish frat think of her, but she knows what they are capable of doing to Lani and herself. However, her growing sense of the injustice of it all, in combination with her new-found temper, still trips her up. The way things end up happening in the end is not how you would expect, at least it wasn't the way that I had put it together in my head.

The best thing about What Happened to Lani Garver is its honesty. For example:

I shook my head, embarrassed by my curiosity but more embarrassed by how none of this made sense to me. "We're talking about a guy with a girl, who propositions you once, and then called you a faggot. What is a person like that?"
"Do you mean, is there a clinical name for someone like that?"
"Well...yeah."
"Dunno. I think they call it 'hypocritical.'"
p81

It's an honest question, one that I'm sure more people than fictional Claire would like an answer to. Small teaching moments like this are peppered throughout the book in a natural and conversational way. Also, the language, as I'm sure you noticed in both of the quotes, makes me cringe, but, as the girlfriend pointed out, this was how we all talked in high school, before we knew it wasn't PC. The dichotomy of the way words like "faggot" are used by the fish frat and the way they are used by the people Lani and his friends is very striking. And though the feeling that we can say it about our own but you can't say it about us is confusing (which is true of a lot of words about a lot of groups that are considered either derogatory or familiar depending on who is saying them to whom), it appears naturally here without forced explanations of why it is or isn't okay.

Warning: There are three chapters worth of the bad thing that happens to Claire and Lani. It's told from Claire's perspective and she goes in and out of consciousness for a lot of it, so it doesn't end up being graphic. It is still pretty upsetting and might be downright detrimental reading for someone who has gone through this type of experience themselves. ( )