King's honesty and portrayal of raw emotion is one of the best aspects of the book. Getting an insight into Gerald's overwhelming anger issues and his slips from reality were both disturbing and eye-opening. This book is a true testament to how your childhood life and family can shape who you become. While Gerald's reflection on his disturbing life did interest me, I felt it became a little repetitive. Although, I suppose it could have been a mirror into his mind and the reoccurring memories that will always haunt him. Gerald's struggle throughout the book was a long and hard fight to try and become who he could've been if he hadn't been held back by his mother and older sister, Tasha. And overall, I am very proud of Gerald for sticking up for himself, even when he had a very small support system.
Although I did appreciate Hannah, who offered Gerald an outlet for escape, her character felt flat to me. While she was quirky and original, we never truly dug deeper into her life other than a few details sporadically thrown in. I felt that if King had taken a little more time to develop Hannah, the book would have improved vastly.
Gerald's relationship with his Dad felt very important to me, it felt very real is it was flawed yet meaningful. I loved watching their relationship grow stronger throughout the book. And I was happy with where it ended up, not too perfect but substantially better than it was originally.
Overall, I found The Reality Boy to be raw and interesting. I ended up giving it a 3/5 stars on Goodreads because although it was an interesting read, I felt some things were very repetitive and it didn't completely engross me as other novels have.