spoiler My Little Brony Discussion Thread!

[Simon 4,557]

With the Q&A event coming around the corner and the book coming out today, I figured it was a good time to start up a discussion thread for those of us who have read or are reading My Little Brony!

 

Personally, I just got my copy today, sat down to read the first few chapters to get a feel for the story, and wound up reading it cover to cover in one sitting, which is something I haven't done in a very long time.  Figured I'd share some preliminary thoughts on the book.  (Full disclosure: I have been working with the publisher and author to set up the forum's Q&A event, and was provided a review copy by the publisher for preparation of the event, but these opinions are my own and whatnot... blah blah blah disclosures. )

 

Anyway, I really love the style of the whole book.  I wasn't 100% sure what to expect going in or what sort of an audience it was going to be aimed at.  I'll say this conversation in the book was when I realized I was going to really appreciate the tone and maturity of the book:

 

 

"Burn!" another guy at the table said. "Pony Girl's got bite."

"Screw you," the original insulter said to Skye.

"You wish."

 

The book did a great job of painting a realistic picture of a high school setting.  It didn't feel forced or over the top, it felt like a very relatable story of the sorts of struggles that many people in the fandom have had to deal with at one time or another.  So much existing media discussing the topic of bullying brings things far too outrageously over the top to feel realistic.  For the most part, bullying takes form in small bits of cruelty that add up.  Television and media likes to paint a picture of a 'bully' who spends all day and night just trying to think of ways to torture someone, when in reality it's more often just someone being a jackass when the opportunity presents itself.  They see a target at school, insult them, maybe attack them physically, and then go on with their day giving little care to what they have done. 

 

This book really painted that sort of a picture... it wasn't any one person who was making it their life goal to torture Drew and Skye, but instead it was a number of people in the school making small jabs at them to a point where it added up and became insufferable.  From the bully's perspective, they move on with their life and give little regard to it because they think that they just made one or two harsh remarks and it couldn't have any lasting effect, but from the bullied kid's perspective who is being picked on by dozens of different people little bits at a time, it becomes overwhelming and hard to deal with.  That's the kind of treatment that Drew and Skye were dealing with and I found it extremely relatable as I have dealt with my fair share of bullying in my lifetime.

 

I also appreciated that the pony references were not overwhelming.  It was very clear that the discussion of fandom and MLP was a vehicle to discuss a much more important issue that effects people far beyond the fandom, instead of a focus of the book.  Sure, there was lots of pony in the book, but it never felt over the top.  The book wasn't calling things 20 percent cooler and forcing in references and name drops, but instead using MLP as a backdrop to develop a story about coping with bullying and overcoming it. 

 

What I really found neat about the discussion of MLP that was in the book was that it helped to demonstrate Drew's growing love of the show.  The book started off with absolutely no mention of the show at all in the first chapter and you saw the amount of thinking he did about the show slowly build as his interest in it became stronger.  It gave the inevitable references and discussion of the show that were going to go in the book an actual purpose instead of just being there to pander.

 

Of everything I loved throughout the book though, I have to say the thing I appreciated most out of everything in the book was the resolution in the end of the second to last chapter.  Going in to the chapter, I did not want to see the book end with Drew's dad wearing a pinkie pie shirt and shouting "I luv poneez" from the rooftop.  That wouldn't have been a realistic ending.  While it's a fantastic show, it's not for everybody and not everybody is open minded enough to even be willing to appreciate it, and this is just a fact about he show and fandom we will never move past.  I don't think it would have been realistic for Drew's dad to move past his preconceptions and prejudgments that easily when they were so strong before, but I think it was completely realistic that the discussion with Holly led to him trying to find a way out of the corner he backed himself into.

 

Overall, I really appreciated and enjoyed the book.  I think anybody in this fandom can relate to one of the characters... whether you're like Skye who was quick to jump on the bandwagon and be open about their feelings, Drew who was much more hesitant to join the herd but couldn't get it off his mind, Emma or Quincy who watched out of curiosity and gained an appreciation for it, the full-on closet brony that is Jake, or because you're the little girl the show was intended for like Holly, there's a character that you can relate to their path to the fandom.  I think it's a fantastic representation of the fandom, and has some excellent lessons and takeaways on bullying both in the fandom and in general.  In other words... I liked it. 

[That One Pone 584]

Honestly I think the reason I am so attached to the characters is because I can relate in so many ways to Drew and Skye. They both faced issues that I have in the real world and also over the same things.

 

I had doubts about this book, thinking it was going to be a cheesy "friendship lesson" type book - to which I was pleasantly surprised to find was not the case.

 

Sadly these days it is not possible to have a friendship that Drew found at all - which is an issue I still suffer with. It's probably why this book has affected me so strongly.

 

--

 

Anyway, enough blabbing.

 

It's a good book, if you have not bought and read it yet, do it. It's worth every penny.