Eighteen months ago I read Winger, an incredible, moving, funny, engaging novel about Ryan Dean West, a fourteen-year-old high school junior and rugby winger who is just trying to survive his high school experience – forget about understanding it. “Stand Off” is the sequel that “Winger” demanded. Two things up front though: A) Unlike most sequels where prior knowledge is suggested or ideal, with this book it is a necessity. If you read this book without reading the first, you won’t really get anything – characters or plot. B) Because this is such a dependent sequel, spoilers for the first book “Winger” are bound to happen. I will do my best to keep them to a minimum but they are unavoidable. If you haven’t read either book, I suggest you check out my review of Winger and decide if it’s something you want to read. If it is, I would skip this review unless you have a knack for forgetting spoilers. All right, that’s it. Let’s go!
“Stand Off”
by Andrew Smith (September 8, 2015) 
It’s his last year at Pine Mountain, and Ryan Dean should be focused on his future, but instead, he’s haunted by his past. His rugby coach expects him to fill the roles once played by his lost friend, Joey, as the rugby team’s stand-off and new captain. And somehow he’s stuck rooming with twelve-year-old freshman Sam Abernathy, a cooking whiz with extreme claustrophobia and a serious crush on Annie Altman—aka Ryan Dean’s girlfriend, for now, anyway.
Equally distressing, Ryan Dean’s doodles and drawings don’t offer the relief they used to. He’s convinced N.A.T.E. (the Next Accidental Terrible Experience) is lurking around every corner—and then he runs into Joey’s younger brother Nico, who makes Ryan Dean feel paranoid that he’s avoiding him. Will Ryan Dean ever regain his sanity?
At the end of “Winger” Ryan Dean West was broken. In the last thirty pages of a 435-page book, Smith dropped sudden tragedy on a funny, smart and clueless, boy becoming an adult protagonist. At the time, I was thinking “Why did you go there?” The book would have been just as beautiful, perhaps even more because it would not have been tainted, had what occurred simply not occurred. I don’t think Smith did this carelessly, the problem is now eighteen months later, and the sequel under my belt, I still don’t see the point for it except for one: this book. This book is not a story. It’s clean up. Rather than launch into a new story or even a good look at Ryan Dean and his continuing journey of growing up – this book was none of that. “Stand Off” was all about Ryan Dean trying to reconnect with the boy he was in “Winger” still deeply affected by that tragic “Why did you do this?” event. Without what happened, there would be no “Stand Off” and that should be a red flag in and of itself. Note, how earlier I said this book was completely dependent on “Winger”? This is how.
“Stand Off” doesn’t give the reader a sense of how Ryan Dean or any of the other characters are. There is no growth and even though there are plenty of new characters, with the exception of Ryan Dean’s twelve-year-old roommate Sam Abernathy, all of the characters are shallow sketches. I can’t see them or hear them, I don’t know what they look like or what drives them and forget things like quirks and deeper psychologies. One thing that made “Winger” such a win was the characters and how complete they were. In this way, “Stand Off” isn’t even in the same zip code, and that makes me sad. While I missed Ryan Dean however, his voice did not waver. Smith was still able to nail Ryan Dean’s POV and it’s the only thing that redeemed this book, and still made it good rather than an absolute flop.
Going into as little detail as possibly, one of Ryan Dean’s best friends was brutally murdered at the end of “Winger”. It came out of nowhere, not attached to an illness or feud or drug problem or reckless choices, which is why it was such a gut punch. This entire book shows how Ryan Dean is struggling with anxiety because he is sure something horrible is going to happen as soon as he takes a breath – so it’s best not to breathe and to keep anyone from being close to him. Beyond this basic framework however, I don’t feel like Smith went where he needed to go to sell us on this. If Ryan Dean cannot sleep or eat then even if he does not understand what is going on, the places in his mind that are revealed to the reader should be much darker, or at least heavier. I feel like Smith tried to keep his original intended audience’s age range in mind, limiting him doing justice to the character of Ryan Dean or really going anywhere in this story. He didn’t seem to take the same care in having Ryan Dean find his friend’s body – why start now?
In truth, this book still has Ryan Dean’s voice even if it lacks his character. It’s that voice that is funny and moving, and addictive and therefore anyone who read “Winger” should read this book too. However anyone who has not read “Winger” should not pick up this book and either read “Winger” or just don’t read either. For people who loved the first book, I apologize in advance, this is not the sequel you anticipated or deserved. I feel like Smith painted himself into a corner with the events at the end of “Winger” and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t come back from that.
It’s too bad because both the characters and readers deserved better. Still, I’m grateful for one last dose of Ryan Dean West, even if it is a lighter more superficial version. All critique aside, Ryan Dean West is a character that will stay with me for a very long time. And considering how much I read, this really is a testament to Andrew Smith as well as the boy he created.
-DMW
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