Well, that was rather uncomfortable and I’m certain that was the point. VICTIM is a socially provocative Own Voice debut that explores the slippery slope of stretching the truth for personal gain.

Javier Perez grew up in the Bronx with a single mother and a hustler father with aspirations to become a famous writer. When a guidance counselor encourages him to exaggerate the circumstances of his upbringing and amplify his diversity to get him into a prestigious college, it sets Javi on a slow path of personal implosion.

Javi’s cascading bad decisions were like watching a car accident; I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the horror of it all. Andrew Boryga raises incredibly timely questions about race, community identity and exploitation of collective and generational trauma.

Boryga puts the empty pursuit of social media fame and the constant need for a dopamine hit on full display. This thought-provoking and page-turning story is a searing social commentary on our culture’s fascination with stories of “victimhood”.

When the truth is fluid, cancel culture runs rampant and the pressures of maintaining an image are high, things are bound to devolve.

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: March 12, 2024

READ THIS IF:
-You read and enjoyed YELLOWFACE by R.F Kuang
-A snarky protagonist doesn’t deter you from a fantastic read
-You’d like to consider an Own Voices perspective on the media

I'm just going to come right out of the gate here saying that Andrew Boryga's upcoming release "Victim" is brilliant. Why such a bold statement? I'll get to that.

     "Victim" follows the life of Javier, who learns from an early age how to be a hustler,  using his life (a drug dealer dad who gets murdered in front of him,  his single mom raising him), and embellishing a lot of it to play the game to his advantage and get to where he wants to be in life. Or so he thinks. There are those that know his truth and can get pulled into his fabricated life, or does it all fall apart?

    Back to the brilliant part. "Victim" played with and made me think about how many ways the word victim can be defined. How it can be used as an advantage at times, which in turn I guess makes the other side the victim? How culture honestly loves to hear about victims. We all kind of get called out on some level in this book, even I read passages and had moment of woops, here I am reading a book that Javier, who in the book would call me out on for enjoying a read about someone's trauma, a story about someone being, well, the victim. The brilliance is how smoothly this is all conveyed where Boryga just slides these items in that made me pause for deep thought, without pointing it out with flashing neon arrows. A well written well paced story that examines so many social issues, virtue signaling, diversity, social media and our obsession with things going viral, and so many gray areas in between.

Thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for this ARC of Andrew Boryga's 'Victim.'

This is a many-faceted novel but deals mainly in the hypocrisy of a certain type of activist and the perceived 'victims' of the title. It covers the addictiveness of the social media affirmation and plunges right into the plagiarism and how a writer/commenter can move from simple embellishment of the facts into outright lying about his or others' lives and how it will eventually catch up with them.

Javier is the writer who, on being told he's the victim, acts like one to get to where he wants to be.

He becomes a slave to the like/repost/retweet and the only way to sustain and feed that beast goes down a dangerous path of pure fiction.

There's a lot of hard truths in this - sometime the people who are perceived as the victims don't see themselves that way, don't know they're being viewed that way, and don't have the time or energy to care since they're too busy leading their lives.

There's a lot of humor in this novel as well - I found myself laughing out loud several times, especially through his schools and college days. His friend Gio, around which much of the drama orbits, is a great, funny, and believable character. His girlfriend is also very believable in a much different way.

Very enjoyable and on the nose look at a guy who can't help himself.

Javier had a childhood that was rife with difficulty. He was the child of divorced parents. He saw his father killed in front of him. He lived in a poor neighborhood. After his father's death, Javier learned that people were more compassionate because of his tragic circumstances. Javier realized that tragedy could be used to his benefit. As he began to think about his life after high school, a guidance counselor reinforced using tragedy to gain admission into college. Will Javier use his personal tragedy or hard work to succeed?

Andrew Boryga's book is a thought-provoking look at society's desire to help people seen as victims. Are we overcompensating in our treatment of people labeled as victims? Javier learns that people see him as a victim and treat him differently. Javier manufactures experiences based on others' expectations of his life. He fails to be genuine and eventually discovers this will result in tragedy too. Is there a way to live with the acknowledgment of being a victim and yet avoid the pitfalls of expectations? What effect will these experiences have on Javier?

A timely, challenging book such as this should be one that is considered for addition to a high school social studies course. There are excellent discussion and learning opportunities in this book.

A cautionary tale of when a mentality can be taken too far. Watching the life choices that bring our MC to be the person he becomes and how he uses the discomfort of others is a very interesting and compelling read.

I wanted to get into this book and I was really enjoying it when I started, but there are so many Spanish phrases with no context that it was impossible for me to understand. I decided to stop reading at 4%. For anyone who doesn’t know Spanish, this book might not be a great time…

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the ARC.

A wonderfully written story about 2 boys who grew up with very similar backgrounds but ultimately chose very different paths. It also includes how far one might go for praise and social media validation, and the consequences of those decisions. It was a totally eye opening story about diversity, racism, and the different relationships that shape your life’s choices.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC!

I enjoyed the book in terms of the pacing, clarity, and subject matter. I thought it touched on a lot of current events and verbalized the feelings that some minority groups hold about not being victims of systematic oppression in spite of that being the pervasive narrative in the media (often portrayed by white people). I think it have a balanced perspective on why too much on either side can be harmful by contrasting Javi and Anais. It was a quick read and didn’t have a lot of fluff which I appreciated. I could also hear the authors voice very strongly and enjoyed that he was clearly writing about the Bronx from first hand experience with that area.

The main issue I had with the book were that the main character reflected and apologized for lying effectively but the trauma of seeing your father killed in front of you and how that impacted his life growing up is never really addressed in a satisfying way, everything felt very surface level throughout the book. The second issue is that everything is very focused on a “current” state in time. I’m reading this when it came out but it’s definitely not a timeless book for all it’s focus on materials and the current state of social media. I would’ve enjoyed a deeper, more substantive approach. The resolution also felt a bit soft and non-consequential.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book!!

An amazing read about diversity and the struggles of growing up in the ghetto. A truly eye opening book!

Every now and again I have the pleasure of reading something that absolutely blows my mind. Victim by Andrew Boryga is one of those books.

Boryga crafts characters with so much depth. Watching Javi and Gio grow into themselves throughout the story was a delight. It was fascinating to see how their personalities and decisions were impacted by the guidance of others in the book. The use of place in this novel was also incredible! The different settings used, combined with Boryga’s writing style, made it nearly impossible to put down.

Victim examines the true meaning of diversity and how society places value on marginalized communities. In a world seemingly focused on diversity, this book introduces a unique perspective to the topic and asks, “Are we really doing enough?” If you like witty, thought-provoking reads, may I please introduce you to your new favorite book. Victim is an easy 5/5 stars for me. What a truly incredible piece of literature! I highly highly highly recommend y’all check it out when it releases on March 12, 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book! I thought that the plot was fascinating and I am really looking forward to reading more by this author!