'Stand Off' by Andrew Smith

Smith, Andrew. Stand Off. New York: Simon and Schuster BFYR, 2015. Print.
ISBN: 978-1-4814-1829-4

Image from:
www.simonandschuster.com

When we last saw Ryan Dean West, his best friend Joey Cosentino had just died under horrific circumstances, and Ryan Dean was struggling to grieve.  Fast forward to the following September, and it's Ryan Dean's last year at Pine Mountain.  It's his senior year, he's still dating Annie Altman, his dream girl, and hopefully, he can mend his relationship with his friends, Sean and JP.

Life has other plans for Ryan Dean.

Even though he's a senior, Ryan Dean has to room with Pine Mountain's newest child prodigy, Sam Abernathy in a tiny dormitory room with the other freshmen, and to add insult to injury, the only set of sheets Ryan Dean and his mother could find to fit the child-sized beds in the room are pink flannel with a winged unicorn called "Princess Snugglewarm."

Could it be any worse?

Oh, yes.  It can.

Sam (or the Abernathy as Ryan Dean calls him) is walking brochure for Pine Mountain.  Clean-cut, polite, an uncanny ability to create real food out of the bits and pieces left for the students on weekends, with a puppy-like eagerness to follow Ryan Dean around campus, who happens to need to sleep with the window wide open, as well as the door to their dorm room.  Sam confesses he cannot sleep without the window and door open, as he suffers from severe claustrophobia.

Oh, and there's N.A.T.E. (the Next Accidental Terrible Experience) who keeps following Ryan Dean around Pine Mountain, taking over his drawings, haunting his sleep.

There's also a chance encounter with Joey's parents and younger brother, Nico, who resembles Joey to such a degree, it's almost painful for Ryan Dean to be around him.  

On top of it all, Coach McAuliffe, the rugby coach, wants Ryan Dean to move from the left wing to the half-fly, which happened to be Joey's position, as well as take over as team captain, which was also Joey's position.  It's a bit much for Ryan Dean to handle.

He's not handling it well.  He's not handling it well, at all.  

The novel has a radically different mood than Winger.  In Winger, Ryan Dean is exuberant, flirtatious,  and a genuinely nice guy.  He's still a genuinely nice guy in Stand Off, albeit one still struggling with grief for his best friend.  Ryan Dean's world has drastically shrunk, especially since his two friends from rugby and Opportunity Hall (Chas and Kevin) graduated, and he's still estranged from Seanie and JP.  The novel appropriately feels claustrophobic, echoing not only the new influence of Sam Abernathy, but Ryan Dean's shrinking circle of friends.  The illustrations that provided so many of the humorous and whimsical moments in Winger have been reduced in number, and their tone has changed as well.  Most of the illustrations that do appear in the novel depict Ryan Dean's fight with N.A.T.E., although others depict some of his more humiliating moments. The book also covers a shorter time frame than Winger.  Whereas Winger took place over at least three months of school, Stand Off covers roughly three to four weeks, contributing to the overall compressed feel of the book.

This version of Ryan Dean is more mature, although he still has his endearingly awkward moments, such as when he deflects the amorous attentions of one of his rugby teammates, utilizing the lessons in consent they've learned from their sex-ed teacher.  Still, the more Ryan Dean faces his personal demons, the more he resembles the Ryan Dean we came to know and love in Winger, just one that's grown up a bit.  It's particularly evident in the scenes where his friend Seanie comes out to him, and the way he learns to cope with Sam's claustrophobia and accept Sam as a friend.

Smith does a really fantastic job depicting Ryan Dean's ongoing struggle to come to terms with Joey's death.  He also manages to send home the message that people often need a little help from their friends or professional therapists to manage things like grief or childhood-trauma-induced claustrophobia.  Rather than have other characters badger Ryan Dean, Smith lets their actions do the hard work of persuading Ryan Dean he doesn't have to face N.A.T.E. -- or indeed anything -- by himself without getting preachy.   As in Winger, Smith displays a deft and sensitive touch regarding characters' sexualities as a matter of fact.

If there are weaknesses in the book at all, they mostly lie in how Smith writes the girls, especially Annie.  They tend to be somewhat two-dimensional.  However, considering the source -- namely Ryan Dean's narration -- it's not necessarily a crippling weakness, or even a major one.  It's too easy to forget Ryan Dean is only fifteen years old, and that his attitudes often reflect his emotional maturity, which doesn't always mirror that of his intellectual maturity.  Smith manages to wrap up several of the loose ends introduced in the book, while decidedly NOT tying everything up in a nice, pretty bow.

This is a fine addition to anyone's collection of realistic YA fiction.  It's a lovely and refreshing break from the glut of paranormal fiction that's dominated YA in recent years.  I'm not sure if Smith is finished with the adventures of Ryan Dean West, but I, for one, would love to see Ryan Dean tackle college.