-- 07 Mar 2016, 21:38 --
bookowlie wrote:I also liked Tito! He was more daring than Jeremy and basically extended the hand of friendship to Jeremy. Jeremy was too shy and self-conscious about his weight so he would not have reached out to Tito on his own. Also, due to his bullying grandfather being home 24/7, Jeremy would never have invited someone to hang out at his house. Tito was so nice to walk home with him and invite him over - this really helped Jeremy gain a little self-confidence by having a friend. Tito's encouragement and his defense of him at school made Jeremy feel like someone cared about him. Although his mom was nice to him, Jeremy's grandfather and his mom's ex-boyfriend made him feel ugly and worthless. Tito was a big catalyst to help Jeremy feel good about himself.
Absolutely! Tito was fantastic. I loved the caring nature that he had for Jeremy, even after the whole Facebook prank fiasco. On top of that, Tito was so incredibly nerdy and I loved that about him. It made the character so relatable. One thing I did wonder, early on, was whether he could possibly be Darwin - the love of bridges and models reminded me of Darwin's puzzle fetish. Tito was much too nice to be Darwin but I did think it was an interesting link between the ultimate good and ultimate evil of the book.