The most important thing to know about this book is that we see life through the eyes of a young man who is all-in on avoiding attention, blending in and not upsetting his overworked/overstressed mom. Sadly this means a constant stream of dishonesty. He will pretend to read a book, lie about having work/reading completed, lie about why he moved, fake a medical issue to get out of his turn to speak and on and on. This has the feel of being portrayed as ‘understandable’ by the author. There is even a comment that “it didn’t really feel like a lie. I think it was more about not liking the truth”.
Some of his internal dialog is also just not very kind, especially at first. For example, he wonders if there is some type of prize for a class accomplishment, remarking that it might be “getting your name written on the board or something stupid like that”.