Um, yeah...Thumbsucker. It's early in the week, so let's ease into it by talking about something near the beginning and give the late starters (usually me) a chance to catch up.

Justin Cobb is a teenage thumbsucker:

The effect when my thumb touched my lips was subtle and encompassing. Because I sometimes watched myself in a mirror, doubling my sense of self-communion, I knew how I looked at the moment of closure. Above my greedily flexing cheeks, my eyes would shine as though I'd just put drops in. My forehead would relax and lose its lines. From the rhythmic bullfrog swelling of my throat and the pulsing muscles along my jaw, it appeared I was actually taking nourishment. I believed I was.

He seems to be an odd boy. But is he really? If you take a close look at those around Justin, his oral fixation isn't very strange. His reality is filled with quirky characters like parents who insist on being called by their first names. His grandmother vomits everywhere and falls asleep behind the wheel of her Horizoneer while attempting to take Justin to New York. Justin's dentist is a pot-smoking hippie and his debate coach is a frustrated homosexual. And his girlfriends all have issues of their own.

What exactly is going on here with this wacky bunch? Did you enjoy their quirky antics or were they annoying? Remind you of anyone you know?