Written by Giovanna Napoleone
“Maybe they just wanted to get away from everything and everyone for a while, or maybe they wanted to try and make their lungs collapse. Either way, they were succeeding.”
His use of strong language, such as “violence and energy drinks”(Leonard) clearly encapsulates the perpetual feeling of intensity throughout his story, which is suited towards the main character’s inner turmoil towards drugs and his sexual identity in relation to the high school environment around him.
For example, “...pulled up from the depths of their previously-weakening resolve”(Leonard), each of Leonard’s main characters have a purpose in Jey’s life, the gender neutral protagonist, who struggles with accidentally selling drugs to a younger student, eventually killing him; However, this is not the main plot of the story, since Jey’s friend group also plays a major role in his support system, and warding off his thoughts of suicide.
“Uncomfortable was too weak a word to describe it—it was more like feeling outside of their own skin, even as they knew they were themself and acting by their own will -“
The bit of text above is a perfect example of how Leonard tries to replicate the scatterbrained mind of a teenager through his work, as well as show how difficult it is for kids who are neglected during their childhood to grow up into their own skin.
Moreover, time jumps prevalent through each new chapter of the book from different school years that the protagonist has experienced slowly reveals the story of what happened to Jey which made him so damaged, in addition to the “beautiful"(Leonard) and dark poetic lifestyle he lives - hanging out on rooftops and watching cat fights, lighting cigarettes and getting bad grades. #dark #poetic #damaged
The main character, Jey, constantly thinks to himself that he is being “cynical”(Leonard), yet the only thing that has changed since his childhood is that now Jey’s friend group was “all conscious of the world, and how things moved and worked"(Leonard). This realization is typical for a young individual to experience at least once in their life, since people in general are often naive in their elementary stages, but come to face the reality of a harsh world as an adult.
With deep themes on the damaged teenage condition, Leonard creates vibrant melancholy imagery to associate his characters with the “overwhelming knowledge that [teenagers who struggle with themselves] truly had nothing, contributed to nothing and would never amount to anything”(Leonard). This belief itself is inherently dark and twisted, causing innocent individuals to think that they have no chance at a future - yet, it is only a result of the characters' past circumstances and troubled histories within their own lives. #sadreads #relatable #circumstances #troubled
Adults, it seems, never truly understand what it means to be a teenager living in the new generation. And Leonard’s novella Lighter Fluid gives them a detailed insight as to what goes on in a troubled teenagers mind daily, hoping to root out the problems within a judging society.
“They were alone, but everyone was with them at once, looking at them and looking away, listening and ignoring their plight all at the same time.”
The “plight”(Leonard) is nothing new - we just need more people to address it as a reality.
And Oskar Leonard draws attention to just that in his book!
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