Matthew Cary Boy21 Novel Quotes

Matthew Quick's unique novel, Boy21, takes readers through the eyes of a young, troubled boy who avoids his past. In a city where drug dealers hang out by the city hall, and old men drink out of brown paper bags, a boy named Finley barely manages to get past his senior year of high school. He keeps himself isolated from the rest of the world, scared to face his past, because it can get him into trouble. However, this changed when he is asked to befriend Russ Washington.The novel reveals that moving on is dependent upon accepting choices that have been made.

When coach shows up to FInley’s house one day, he asks him to become friends with a boy named Russ. He has faced a horrible past. His parents were murdered in California, he had to live

Doing so lets him move on from the incident to remember. Remembering makes me feel like someone's stabbing me in the throat” (231). It was difficult for Finley to recall the past involving his mother.“I’ve never actually talked about it before to anyone. I’m surprised I even used my library voice, that I was even telling the story. It was gone”(230). Finley seemed relieved when saying this, like he was stuck in a cage for so long, and then finally set free. Holding on to his story kept him reserved, and scared to speak. It made him quiet. Even though he only told Russ, revealing his past made Finley’s character more

Enough to make you want to check out and pretend you're from outer space. I don’t know. Boy21 kept me away” (236). Russ finally decides to put Boy21 and the death of his parents behind him. It helped him recognize that if he kept holding on to what happened, it would leave him far behind.

During the middle of the book, Finley decides to quit the basketball team. Some may say he’s giving up on something he worked so hard for, but clearly, Finley letting go of the basketball team was an important step to moving forward to start a life with Erin. He realized that there were more important things than basketball, his future, his girlfriend, and his family. He just had to obtain the fact that leaving the team was important for moving