Aging with Ella

               From the very beginning of the novel, we’re forced to recognize Benji’s identity as a driving force in his story. If I had four adjectives to describe Benji, I would say ex-twin, black, wealthy, and nerdy. All of these qualities make him an outsider to one group or another.             For all his life, Benji has had someone on his team. He can’t completely be an outcast with Reggie by his side. They were, as he puts it, “a matching set” (6). By the time the events of the novel start, however, they “ceased to be twins”. Benji no longer has an ally or companion. He has to work to form new relationships. Navigate the waters of coolness and popularity without his brother to fall back on if he needs support. We expect to see Benji not fitting in at school, but Sag Harbor was made for him. Surely he fits in there… right? “We fit in there” (7). This quote is coming at a time where...

The first week of classes, we discussed what coming-of-age meant. Was it a long drawn-out series of events, or one big moment in a person’s life that forever changes them? Was it a loss of innocence or the gaining of maturity? Coming-of-age stories can fit many different scenarios and span genres. So where does Jason’s story fit in to all of this? Much of Jason’s story revolves around the acceptance of himself intersected with the realization of the toxicity of the (masculine) social structures that surround him. To give us even more insight into his story, Jason narrates the entire book for us. The events seem so dramatized, which at first may seem like a writing fault, but show us exactly how Jason is feeling as a middle school boy. In class people suggested that the way the bullying was described was unrealistic or that some parts of the story seemed more magical than true to life. When I was first reading it, these mystical parts made it less coming-of-age to me. I wasn’t able to...