Summary:
Alan is the star of his high school class. He is popular, dating a beautiful girl, and also pretty smart. Everything seems to be going well until, Doomed (a high school geek), writes a newsletter questioning the reality of love. From there, things begin to crack. Alan's family life is not what someone would think a star athlete's home life would be. He has to deal with his father, whose drunken antics proves to be a barrier to Alan's happiness. Alan also ends up falling in love with Doomed's hot mom, but that is obviously not a great idea. Finally, Alan has to figure out what his true thoughts are and Doomed ends up with the popularity that he desires (although he states that he does not desire it).
My thoughts:
I feel like this reads like a movie. There are a lot of hidden items within this book, which to avoid more spoilers than the summary I'm leaving out. As a teenager, I remembered not having a particular interest in the book, but I found myself reading more adult fiction as a teenager than I do now as an adult. I found the twist of the popular jock telling the story instead of the nerd to be interesting. This includes a fall from grace basically, but Alan doesn't seem to whine about it. I feel like there is a lot of character growth within him, without being the jock who suddenly stays popular and becomes the most caring individual in the world as well. I don't like Doomed. I am a nerd, so I tend to like them, but Doomed's depression seems to sink into me. I just dislike him and don't really want him to raise in social status. That's unusual for me, but it may mean that I recognize the flaws more than the other characters in the book, which would be excellent character development on Kerr's part. For a relatively short book, this is rather slow. Much more is happening inside reflections and thoughts of the characters than outside with action to move the plot along. That makes the novel more suited for older teenagers.
Alan is the star of his high school class. He is popular, dating a beautiful girl, and also pretty smart. Everything seems to be going well until, Doomed (a high school geek), writes a newsletter questioning the reality of love. From there, things begin to crack. Alan's family life is not what someone would think a star athlete's home life would be. He has to deal with his father, whose drunken antics proves to be a barrier to Alan's happiness. Alan also ends up falling in love with Doomed's hot mom, but that is obviously not a great idea. Finally, Alan has to figure out what his true thoughts are and Doomed ends up with the popularity that he desires (although he states that he does not desire it).
My thoughts:
I feel like this reads like a movie. There are a lot of hidden items within this book, which to avoid more spoilers than the summary I'm leaving out. As a teenager, I remembered not having a particular interest in the book, but I found myself reading more adult fiction as a teenager than I do now as an adult. I found the twist of the popular jock telling the story instead of the nerd to be interesting. This includes a fall from grace basically, but Alan doesn't seem to whine about it. I feel like there is a lot of character growth within him, without being the jock who suddenly stays popular and becomes the most caring individual in the world as well. I don't like Doomed. I am a nerd, so I tend to like them, but Doomed's depression seems to sink into me. I just dislike him and don't really want him to raise in social status. That's unusual for me, but it may mean that I recognize the flaws more than the other characters in the book, which would be excellent character development on Kerr's part. For a relatively short book, this is rather slow. Much more is happening inside reflections and thoughts of the characters than outside with action to move the plot along. That makes the novel more suited for older teenagers.
