SuitabookGeeked Out
Obert Skye
- Reading
- If the premise appeals, read alongside the child for the opening chapters and pause when the setting’s danger or spider incident appears. Discuss whether actions solve problems, escalate them, or simply create comic complications.
- Themes
- Standing up to bullying: Tip, Mindy, Owen and Xen are bullied or socially marginalised and form LAME after deciding to take a stand. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Ingenuity versus status: Geekdom sits low in a school hierarchy, while the friends use intellectual abilities rather than athletic prowess to confront school problems. The premise gives capable, dependable and coding-skilled friends meaningful agency, while also framing their opponents through exaggerated clique conflict.
- Humour within social collapse: Bomb damage, shortages, dangerous streets and school disorder are presented through absurd names, superhero-like developments and comic situations. Humour appears to soften and satirise the bleak setting, while one account still describes the world as dark and ominous.
- Worth knowing
- Consider whether the child enjoys humour that undercuts bleak settings. The school world includes social exclusion, intended harm, societal breakdown, unsafe nights and unsettling spider encounters, even when scenes are presented lightly.