Ray Vs the Meaning of Life
Michael F. Stewart
Publication date: May 15th 2018
Genres: Young Adult, Coming-of-age
“Stewart presents readers with a dynamite coming-of-age story … A tale spins its answer to an age-old question into an inclusive, hilarious, and thought-provoking yarn.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Grandma’s Last Will and Testament names Ray to inherit the trailer park. It’s a million-dollar estate with one hitch: to prove he’s not as aimless as he seems, Ray must discover the meaning of life by the end of the month. (She left the answer in an envelope.) If he fails, the camp goes to his estranged family.
How does anyone find the meaning of life while running a park full of misfit miners, would-be truck racers, and one demanding little girl? There’s a bear too. A grizzly. Maybe that’ll help?
My Review:
Ray Vs the Meaning of Life opens with seventeen-year-old Ray
telling us how his Grandma died by the hands of a bear, yes a bear. When I read
Grandma’s death scene it cracked me up I was laughing out loud. It reminded me
of that song Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.
In her will Grandma bequeathed Ray her trailer park but she
has left one stipulation. Ray must come up with the meaning to life in one
month or he gets nothing and the trailer park is then given to his mother and
uncle.
Ray doesn’t want an old trailer park all he wants is to play
his video games all day and have millions of followers that will one day
hopefully pay to watch him play.
Before Grandma’s death Ray’s mother and sister had the job
of cleaning the trailer park but after the reading of the will and then knowing
that they could end up with nothing they decide to quit and leave the running
of the place to Ray not that they think he can find the meaning of life. Can
Ray find the meaning of life? Can anyone? Is the meaning of life the same for
everyone?
Life is what we make of it or what we choose to make it.
Sure sometimes we have a wrench throw in our lives that turns our lives around
and make them go in a complete different direction than we planned. But it is
what we do with this wrench and how we handle it that actually decides the road
that we take. Each and every choice consciously or unconsciously we make is ours
and ours alone. If life takes us into a rut and we stay there instead of
getting out then we have chosen to stay there.
We can be the one to throw a wrench in someone else’s’ life
by our attitude. If we go around feeling all sad and being hateful all the time
then we are putting this energy out into the universe and others around us may
pick up on these feelings and think they are theirs and before you know it you
have changed someone’s life. So just send out that good energy and feelings and
you may just help to change someone’s life for the better.
Ray Vs the Meaning of Life is not the first book by author
Michael F. Stewart and I hope it won’t be the last. I think this is like the
fourth book of his that I have read and while they were probably written for
the young audience they can be read and very much enjoyed by us older folk. As
they say you are never too old to learn. Of all the books by Michael that I
have read so far I think I have learned something from each and every one.
Although I have enjoyed reading all them I do think that Ray
Vs the Meaning of Life is my favorite. Now don’t get me wrong they were all
amazing books. When I signed up to review each of the books I wasn’t sure if they
were something that I wanted to read but I chose to read them because of how
they were written and hoping that I would learn something from them. Michael F.
Stewart’s writing reminds me in ways of Stephen King in all the books that I
have read by Stephen King and that is most of them I have figured out that
Stephen king has like a hidden meaning or a lesson that he wants to get out to
the world.
I would recommend Ray Vs the Meaning of Life to all
audiences old and young alike. If you like books that will have laughing out
loud and make you feel good when it is over and you are looking to learn
something along the way then Ray Vs the Meaning of Life is the book for you.
Author Bio:
Michael F. Stewart embraces all forms of storytelling. In 2009, he created Bully For You for Scholastic Canada, a fully functioning social media platform with an embedded interactive story. He’s written graphic novels for Rubicon Publishing’s Boldprint series, illustrated early readers and novellas for Pearson (coming in 2019!), non fiction texts on Corruption and Children’s Rights; he even tried to convince the world that we needed a location based storytelling app with augmented reality (NARR8R)-we still do! He’s written adult horror, sci-fi, urban fantasy, and adventure. He’s even written books you’ll never find. But nothing is ever wasted. His most recent book, Counting Wolves, a contemporary YA, was named to Kirkus Reviews “Best Books of 2017” list. The Boy Who Swallows Flies (2018) won Killer Nashville’s Claymore Award, and the Assured Destruction Series won The Creation of Stories: Best YA Award at the Toronto International Book Fair. In 2016, Michael was selected to join the CFC/Entertainment One TV Adaptation Lab. Herder of four daughters, Michael lives to write in Ottawa where he was the Ottawa Public Library’s Writer in Residence and runs free writing workshops. To learn more about Michael and his next projects visit his website at www.michaelfstewart.com or connect via Twitter @MichaelFStewart.
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