There Is No Dog by Meg Rosoff
God may not be exactly who you’d expect him to be. He’s actually a slovenly, lazy, disinterested teenager named Bob, who’d much rather lust after hot girls than pay attention to any prayers made in his name. Bob lives in an apartment with Mr. B, who has been his personal assistant for millennia. Every time Bob gets interested in a new girl, the entire weather system goes haywire. This time the girl is Lucy, who works at a zoo and lives a simple life until Bob gets involved. The question is which will last longer: Bob’s attention span or Earth! This irreverent and very funny novel for teens comes from one of the top YA authors and is pure joy to read.
Rosoff’s writing is buoyant here. The entire premise carries humor, but she infuses it further with wry insights, clever devices, and unexpected twists. It’s a wild sort of book that the reader simply has to go along with. This is controlled chaos, reined in solely by the quality of the writing and the strength of the story.
The characters of the book are a motley group. Readers will immediately be drawn to the luminous Lucy but at the same time, they will see themselves in God as well. Bob is a God with a raw creativity, undisciplined natural skills, and very short attention span. While he may read at first like a regular teen, Rosoff manages to mix that universal experience with one that is specific to God.
There is a magic here, a miracle, that takes a book that could have been heresy and lifts it to heavenly humor. Appropriate for ages 15-18.
Reviewed from ARC received from G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
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