Boy on the Edge reminds me of Wuthering Heights; it has an aura of helplessness and low-key depression. I loved this novel because it does not feature a romantic relationship but it instead focuses on Icelandic scenery and feelings of intense loneliness.

After finishing the novel, I do not understand why I liked it so much, as there is very little action throughout the book. The most intense scene occurs at the very end with Ollie. Overall, Erlings’ beautiful imagery and description overrides the lackluster story. My favorite lines were:

     His head was a mountain; his eyes lay under the mountain and he couldn’t move them.        Was he frozen or had he melted? His hands and feet were fence posts, sinking slowly            into the swamp. His mouth was dry, his tongue a kelp-covered rock half buried in the          black sand. (136)

Erlings’ entire novel reads like poetry, making the story inconsequential. The other novels we have read this semester (besides I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) all pale in comparison to Erlings’ poetic descriptions. So, although there were no cliff-hangers, Erlings’ book has ‘edged’ out others to become my favorite book of the semester.