Still Just a Geek

This book has a somewhat interesting conceit: rather than a fresh new memoir, Wheaton has republished his 2004 memoir with annotations about how he reflects on stories and episodes differently than he did when the book was originally written. The book is then rounded out with some post-2004 blog posts, also with annotation. The result is to expose pretty frankly Wheaton's earlier stances, and he writes compassionately but honestly about how his own mental health struggles have affected him and how he is (happily) in a better place now. He is clearly mortified by some of the things that he wrote as a younger man, and gamely atones for them each time cringeworthy language pops up. His annotations also drop any circumspection that he had about the role that his parents played in his life, and frankly it sounds like they were pretty miserable towards him. I can't imagine that it is terribly healthy to grow up as a child star under any circumstances, but Wheaton's writing makes it clear that his parents saw him essentially as a vehicle for their own personal well-being, which is appalling and tragic.

While the annotation gimmick leads to some insightful reflections from Wheaton, I can't say that it makes it a terribly easy read: the reader is constantly jumping up and down the page to go from original writing to hard-won insight. Additionally, perhaps it is my aging eyes, but I found the footnotes (based on the asterisk, dagger, double-dagger system rather than numbers) incredibly small in the body of the text. Since annotations are the basis of the book, I think they should have stood out a bit more.

But there's no doubt that Wheaton has plenty of great stories as well as valuable thoughts and advice about mental health and how we should treat our fellow human beings. Readers will be nodding along as they read since they need to jump up and down the page, but nodding in agreement as well.