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Slam

3.29 of 5 stars 3.29 · rating details · 11,944 ratings · 1,434 reviews

Bestselling author Nick Hornby delivers his first novel for young adults.

For 16-year-old Sam, life is about to get extremely complicated. He and his girlfriend—make that ex-girlfriend— Alicia have gotten themselves into a bit of trouble. Sam is suddenly forced to grow up and struggle with the familiar fears and inclinations that haunt us all.

Nick Hornby’s poignant and witt...more

Hardcover, 309 pages

Published October 16th 2007 by Putnam Juvenile

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Oct 19, 2007 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: ages 15 and up (mostly up)

English author Nick Hornby has dutifully produced ‘vox populi’ fiction about contemporary men struggling to grow up, cope, and accept responsibility for the better part of fifteen years. Often these males are self-absorbed, id-driven, and change themselves for others. Readers respond with great enthusiasm; men read them as how-to manuals. His latest offering, Slam, follows the same formula – but it’s written in the sprawling vocabulary and context of a teenager.

Hornby’s writing style has always...more English author Nick Hornby has dutifully produced ‘vox populi’ fiction about contemporary men struggling to grow up, cope, and accept responsibility for the better part of fifteen years. Often these males are self-absorbed, id-driven, and change themselves for others. Readers respond with great enthusiasm; men read them as how-to manuals. His latest offering, Slam, follows the same formula – but it’s written in the sprawling vocabulary and context of a teenager.

Hornby’s writing style has always been conversational and loose, his characters lovable despite occasional actions, and his pages are often filled with pop-culture hooks (soccer fanatics in Fever Pitch, audiophiles in High Fidelity, a bachelor pad full of great stuff in About a Boy). So it really isn’t so great an ollie for Hornby to pen a young adult novel about a skateboarding teen forced to grow up painfully fast. Slam tells the story of Tony Hawk-obsessed Sam, an 18-year-old art student who speaks directly to you as the reader, like you are his confidant or therapist, relating two years of his life since a life-altering event in highly reasoned hindsight.

Sam lives with his single (and dating) 32-year-old mother in middle-class London, England. When 16-year-old Sam is forcefully introduced to the beautiful Alicia, they rush into a physical relationship. Things are rocky and they are about to break up when she gets pregnant, just like Sam’s mom did at their age. The man-boy seeks advice from the bedroom poster of skating legend Hawk, whose memoir Sam has read “50,000 times”. The imagined Hawk can only speak in Magic 8-Ball like passages relating to the issue, but it’s the only solace the troubled young father-to-be can find.

Hornby’s real accomplishment with this story is not necessarily wading through a heady subject matter or his deft incorporation of pop-culture. Many have written on the subject of being a teen parent, and many book houses produce young adult literature that make affinitive references to fashionable celebrities or items to endear the product to a targeted reader. His ramble-style and use of language make his work significant. Many teen pregnancy stories in film, TV, and books can get heavy-handed and serious, too much like the time your parents sat you down and reasoned with you to avoid youthful mistakes. The YA label is a difficult genre to navigate – it’s can’t be patronizing or proselytizing – so having an author with a pop vernacular and conversational wit helps.

Typically, Hornby’s characters come from deeper, adult backgrounds with more emotional fractures. In Slam, the narrative voice is younger and can only observe and deal with life matters from less than two decades of experience. Hornby adapts well enough.

Sam has the same wishes and desires of other teenage boys. He wants to hang at the local skate park. He wants to date normal girls. He goes to the movies and to the Starbucks for a frappucino. His friends aren’t the ideal, but they are what they are.

It becomes a troubling part of the writing process however when Sam acts with the hesitant wisdom of a righteous older person. He doesn’t try drugs, he is hesitant about fooling around, and in general is wise beyond his years. The pregnancy is portrayed as something forced upon him. The material is much more enjoyable when Hornby just lets it flow rather than preventing the characters from learning by experienced humanity.

Two of the three Hornby novels turned into movies were re-settled in America for better understanding of the material by audiences there. So what hope do teens in America have to interpret life there? It’s the subtleties of detail and thought underneath the action that often make this author’s writings pop, so much so that Slam may be a more popular novel with his established adult fan base than new and younger readers.(less)

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Nov 13, 2012 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by The Compulsive Reader for TeensReadToo.com

Sam figures that his life is going pretty well. He's doing all right in school, he gets along with his mom, he has a great girlfriend, and is getting good at skateboarding. He has aspirations of attending college, unlike his mom, who had to drop out of school when she became pregnant with him.

But all of his dreams come crashing down when his girlfriend, Alicia, tells him that she's pregnant. And she has no intention of getting rid of the bab...more

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Jan 18, 2008 Ian Wood rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: teenagers of all ages

Shelves: nick-hornby

I wasn’t particularly looking forward to reading Nick Hornby’s ‘Slam’, his first teenage novel. It was nineteen years since I was last a teenager and even then I think I was probably too old for the term to really stick. However this was a novel by Nick Hornby whose ‘High Fidelity’ is my favourite novel; whose ‘Fever Pitch’ is my favourite memoir; I think you get the idea, I like Nick Hornby, I don’t however like teenagers. Anyway there was nothing for it, I had to roll up my sleeves, grit my te...more I wasn’t particularly looking forward to reading Nick Hornby’s ‘Slam’, his first teenage novel. It was nineteen years since I was last a teenager and even then I think I was probably too old for the term to really stick. However this was a novel by Nick Hornby whose ‘High Fidelity’ is my favourite novel; whose ‘Fever Pitch’ is my favourite memoir; I think you get the idea, I like Nick Hornby, I don’t however like teenagers. Anyway there was nothing for it, I had to roll up my sleeves, grit my teeth, grasp the nettle and take the book by the spine.

I’m so glad I did, what a fantastic and painfully funny book. Certainly Hornby’s best since ‘About a Boy’ with which it sets a fairly consistent tone. This is quite remarkable as ‘Slam’ is written in the first person as a teenage boy. Although ‘About a Boy’ was very insightful into the mind of an adolescent boy and his relationship with the adults around him it didn’t have to do it in the boy’s voice. ‘Slam’ is written in a very convincing voice of a fifteen year old boy, although the language and passions for music and skating very much tie the novel to the present the spirit in which it is written ties it to teenagers of any generation and consequently I can feel a certain empathy for a teenager I could obviously have fathered.

I don’t want to tell you anything of the plot as it would spoil the book to hear about it in my voice rather than ‘Sam’s’, trust me it’s better than the blurb which relies too heavily on the Tony Hawks fandom to give a balanced appreciation of the book.

I think that the reason that Sam’s voice in ‘Slam’ works is that it still resonates with the same passion as Rob’s did in ‘High Fidelity’. Perhaps the reason Hornby and even I can understand this character so well is that we belong to the first generation that never grew up, we are still essentially teenagers. The four hundred or so middle aged men jumping up and down to ‘Teenage Kicks’ at a recent Undertones concert I attended possibly suffer from the same malaise.
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Nov 23, 2007 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Hornby fans

Just before he turned 16, Sam's life was going pretty well. His mother - who was only 16 years old herself when she had Sam - just dumped her terrible boyfriend, his teachers began encouraging him to seriously consider studying graphic design in college, and his skateboarding skills were slowly but surely improving after years of practice at the local skatepark in his working-class London neighborhood. He even met a really cute girl named Alicia at a party his mum dragged him to, and they began...more Just before he turned 16, Sam's life was going pretty well. His mother - who was only 16 years old herself when she had Sam - just dumped her terrible boyfriend, his teachers began encouraging him to seriously consider studying graphic design in college, and his skateboarding skills were slowly but surely improving after years of practice at the local skatepark in his working-class London neighborhood. He even met a really cute girl named Alicia at a party his mum dragged him to, and they began seeing a lot of each other, in every sense of the phrase. But while their romance quickly fizzled out, an accidental pregnancy ensured that they would be forced to continue seeing a lot of each other, whether they liked it or not.

Nick Hornby's first book written for a young adult audience, Slam is entertaining and heartfelt. As anyone who is familiar with any of Hornby's other works would expect, it will certainly appeal to boys and does a good job of dealing with questions of what it means to be a man and a father in a language that teens will relate to. Especially affecting is his portrait of Sam's relationship with his mother, whose own experiences with an unexpected teen pregnancy help Sam to understand that while the arrival of a baby portends enormous changes, it need not ruin his life nor Alicia's. The book also honestly addresses questions of social class in its portrayal of the conflicts that arise between Alicia's upper-middle class parents and Sam's working-class mother.

While I enjoyed the book, it is marred by flaws that in my view prevent it from being fully successful. For example, Sam regularly seeks advice from a poster of his idol, Tony Hawk, who responds to him with quotations from his autobiography and apparently has the ability to transport Sam into different points in time at his whim. I found this plot device to be gimmicky, and its repeated use wore on me pretty quickly. Additionally, some scenes are so weak that they detract from the quality of the larger narrative. For example, after Alicia delivers the baby, we learn that not only had they not decided on a first name for the baby (which they end up naming Rufus because a Rufus Wainwright song was playing on the stereo while he was being born. My eyes rolled into the back of my head when I read this), they also happened to completely neglect the small matter of what the baby's last name would be until after it was born! Of course, this results in an enormous fight in the maternity ward between Alicia's parents and Sam's mother, and while the scene was entertaining I just couldn't believe that something like that would ever happen in reality. Finally, some of the characters are incredibly weak and underdeveloped, especially Sam's best friend Rabbit, who is so dim at times that it completely defies belief.

This is an enjoyable book, but certainly does not rank among the best work in either Hornby's oeuvre or in the world of young adult fiction generally.
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Dec 17, 2008 Inge rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'm a big Nick Hornby fan but this was crap. Crapity crap crap crap - probably didn't help that i was pregnant when i read it - its main character is a teenage boy who gets his girlfriend pregnant and has a fit with his leg in the air then legs it. It uses a very annoying bollocks plot thing as well, and i can't remember the proper term so you won't know what i mean unless you read it but i seriously don't recommend you do but if you choose to you can have my copy cause i stupidly bought mine -...more

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Oct 20, 2009 Anna Valdez rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ssr

Anna Valdez
Period 5/6
Slam
Nick Honrby
pages:309
September 30, 2009
Book Rating:8

The person who change the most in the beginning thru the end it was Sam. Because in the beginning he was all interested in the skating and he always wanted to be with his friends. He didn't put attention to his parents and he wasn't a good guy. When he really change was when he met this girl named Alicia.
Alicia was a had a major importance because she was now Sam's girlfriend. I think this conflict was for both external...more

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Jun 21, 2008 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those who want to learn to write with a distinctive voice, Nick Hornby fans

I think I'd read a Nick Hornby Novel even if it were just his characters reading ads from a phone book. Part of it is the cool way that those Brits sound when they talk about anything, but the voices of a Hornby character will stay with you for a while. His Narrator in this book, Sam, like the narrators of High Fidelity and About A Boy, has many chuckalicious turns of phrase. But few writers are going to attempt the first person narrative if they can't manage to handle one distinctive voice.
If...more

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Nov 26, 2007 Abby rated it 1 of 5 stars

Wow, this book was ATROCIOUS. It's like Nick Hornby sat down and thought of all the worst cliches about teen books and then decided he could write a teen novel. The main character is a teenage skater who's so obsessed with Tony Hawk that he dialogues with the Tony Hawk poster above his bed on a nightly basis. He asks the poster questions about life, and the poster responds with parts of Tony Hawk's autobiography that the kid has memorized from reading so many times. I didn't buy it -- c'mon, Ton...more

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Oct 29, 2007 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is Nick Hornby 's first Young Adult novel. I am a fan of Hornby's earlier books such as "About a Boy, "High Fidelity," and "How to be Good." However, I read this as part of a library science class I'm taking.

It was a very well written novel. It's interesting how the protagonist here is not much different from the men in Hornby's other books except for the fact that he is 15 in this book. It just goes to show that men, if left to their own devices, stay in eternal youthdom, at least in thei...more

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Jan 28, 2009 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

The unusual, somewhat fantastical twist worked into the storyline (I won't give it away) may alienate readers expecting something a little grittier, but for those who don't mind a little quirkiness, this book manages to hold on to a ring of truth for all that. It's hard not to get pulled into this story. Sam, an average skater kid finally hits has a run of great luck and dates someone a little out of his league only to find out that he's going to be a new dad once the flirtation has run its cour...more

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Nov 06, 2007 Danimal rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: teenagers just to see what they thought

Someone - maybe Greil Marcus? - once said something to the effect of "I'd listen to a record of Bob Dylan reading the phone book." Well, I used to feel that way about Nick Hornby. I love his writing so much that I figured I'd read his children's books, his cookbooks, his YA fiction. Well, scratch the latter, for sure.

Yes, he gets inside his teenage hero's head and he captures the way teenagers probably think. But what's the fun in that? I loved his other books because they seemed effortless as...more

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Mar 23, 2009 Isabelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

You can always count on Nick Hornby ("About a Boy," "High Fidelity," "A Long Way Down," etc.) for an easy, witty read. "Slam" is written from the POV of a 16-18-year old boy in London whose only care in the world is skateboarding until he finds himself in an adult situation. Not Hornby's best, but I do think it's impressive how well he captures the voice and cluelessness of a teenager.

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Mar 05, 2009 Derek added it

i like how he knocks her up as soon as they meet. Thats funny. and yeah i dont like skateboarding so i cant really relate to the character but i can in tha way that he likes girls sooo, i dont really know what u want me to write lawton but this is about as good as it gets.

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Dec 02, 2007 Stacey rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was surprised when I saw this in the bookstore--I had no idea Hornby had a new novel out. Once I got home, I realized I probably hadn't heard because Slam is being marketed as a young adult novel. I love love love High Fidelty, and thought About a Boy was excellent but not perfect. And although I've found all his other novels deeply flawed, I keep buying them as soon as they come out. This is probably a three star novel, but I gave it four because I finished it in one day (when I should have b...more

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Dec 31, 2007 Valerie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

I loved the voice of Slam. I thought it was so fresh, and I can see how it would appeal to teens as well as adults.

This book deals with teen pregnancy and its aftermath in a way that's real - it's not just another morality tale for teens in which their lives are completely destroyed by premarital sex.

You get to go along with 16-year-old Sam as his (and his girlfriend's) lives are turned upside-down by her pregnancy. You get to experience her labor and the birth of their baby through Sam's eyes....more

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Nov 22, 2012 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: relationships, in-my-library, read-2012, fiction-in-english, contemporary, british-fiction

Slam var en spännande upplevelse. När jag började läsa boken var jag osäker på om jag skulle fortsätta. Det var en knepig början som jag inte riktigt förstod eller kunde relatera till.Jag var inte beredd på vem berättaren skulle vara eller hur pratigt det skulle vara. Boken blev däremot bättre när Hornby hade lämnat inledningen. Jag blev van, tror jag, och dessutom lev berättandet lite lugnare så småningom. Jag gillade själva grundhandlingen trots att den kanske inte alltid utspelades såsom jag...more Slam var en spännande upplevelse. När jag började läsa boken var jag osäker på om jag skulle fortsätta. Det var en knepig början som jag inte riktigt förstod eller kunde relatera till.Jag var inte beredd på vem berättaren skulle vara eller hur pratigt det skulle vara. Boken blev däremot bättre när Hornby hade lämnat inledningen. Jag blev van, tror jag, och dessutom lev berättandet lite lugnare så småningom. Jag gillade själva grundhandlingen trots att den kanske inte alltid utspelades såsom jag hade önskat. Det var en bra tanke bakom boken men det var som om Hornby inte hade tänkt igenom den från början till slut. Jag antar att han hade en baktanke med tidshoppen och Q&A-slutet men det fungerade inte riktigt för mig. Jag hade önskat att han hade hoppat över Q&A-slutet och istället jobbat mer med tidshoppen. Jag gillade dessa nästan faktiskt.

Slam var en oväntat känslosam bok. Det var jag inte beredd på när jag började läsa boken men jag blev väldigt indragen i inte bara temat men även bokens karaktärer och deras livsstilar. Det uppstod många intressanta klasskonflikter mellan familjerna i boken som inte riktigt existerar i Sverige. Trots att man kanske inte tänker på det direkt kommer Sam, huvudkaraktären, från en arbetarfamilj med en mamma som är 16 år äldre än honom själv. Alicia kommer från en akademikerfamilj med föräldrar som både är över 50 med god utbildning. ”The accident” utlöste många intressanta konflikter mellan familjerna. Ibland kändes det verkligen som vi mot dem.

Jag kan tänka mig att detta kan vara en bra bok för antingen en 9:a eller för gymnasiet beroende på hur man jobbar med den. Det gäller att man inte bara bearbetar bokens innehåll men även sätter in den i ett samhällsperspektiv de unga kan relatera till. Boken innehåller trots allt ett aktuellt ämne som vi borde prata mer om än vad vi gör i dag. Slam har dessutom ett språk som jag tror kan relatera till ungas egna språkanvändande. Hhmm..kanske är det något jag får fundera på och se vad man kan göra med..(less)

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May 10, 2011 Sonia rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A volte prenderei i traduttori dei titoli e gli fartei un bell'interrogatorio per fargli confessare il perchè di quella scelta.
Ma che c'azzecca "tutto per una ragazza" con questa storia???
Senza parole.

Ok. Con Hornby ho un rapporto controverso: devo sempre leggere tutti i suoi romanzi ma credo che me ne sia piaciuto veramente solo uno: Alta Fedeltà. Gli altri sono leggibili, anche carini, ma niente di eccezionale. Però li devo leggere, come se mi facesse piacere leggere qualcosa di cui dopo dir

...more

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Mar 01, 2009 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

I always enjoyed Nick Hornby's stuff and was glad he decided to venture into the realm of YA. Although I wasn't thrilled with this book overall, its still a well written work that was worth the run through.

Sam is a decent main character and his narrative voice and reactions to what happens to him in the plot seem genuine. The biggest thing about him though that I couldn't get passed was his complete lack of friends. Besides Rabbit, who he never pretends to like, he has absolutely no friends whic...more

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Feb 18, 2009 Melissa added it

4Q 4P J

Slam is my selection for a sports-oriented Best Book for Young Adults. The main character Sam is 15 years-old and an avid skater. He idolizes skater Tony Hawk, and relates his book “Hawk- Occupation: Skateboarder” to his own life. The best gift he ever received was a poster of Tony Hawk, which was given to him by his mother. The poster on the wall quickly becomes his confidant, someone to share with and talk to. “Tony Hawk” provides responses and advice in return, all in relation to his b...more

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Jan 20, 2009 Thomas rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book Slam by: Nick Hornby is about a boy named Sam who is 16 years old and lives with his mother. Sam’s mother gave birth to Sam when she was 16 and puts a lot of pressure on Sam to not make that mistake. He loves to skateboard and has a poster of Tony Hawk who he talks to when he has a problem.
Sam never had a real girlfriend, but he wanted one only if she didn’t interfere with his skating that he loved so much. His mother had a party to go to and brought Sam along with her were he met a ver...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic, young-adult, teen-parent

Sam loves skateboarding and it consumes his life until he meets Alicia. For a few weeks everything is wonderful, in their short, but intense, love affair. They break off the relationship just as quickly as it started, then – Slam! – Sam finds out Alicia is pregnant. Sam tries to escape from the situation, as any teen boy might, but he eventually does with the help of his hero, Tony Hawk. Sam finds himself transported into the future and it is skateboard champion Tony Hawk who gives Sam advice. B...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Jaemi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-fiction

Sam Jones has some plans for his life. Mainly, be the first in the family to go to college, and not to impregnate anyone while still in his teens. While his grades aren't stellar, they're not bad, and his Art teacher recently recommended he study Art & design after school. He's single, and spends most of his time skating (on a board) so all in all, his plans seem to be going all right. He worries, every now and then, whether it will all really turn out all right, but who doesn't? Pretty much...more Sam Jones has some plans for his life. Mainly, be the first in the family to go to college, and not to impregnate anyone while still in his teens. While his grades aren't stellar, they're not bad, and his Art teacher recently recommended he study Art & design after school. He's single, and spends most of his time skating (on a board) so all in all, his plans seem to be going all right. He worries, every now and then, whether it will all really turn out all right, but who doesn't? Pretty much, he's content.

When his mother wants to bring him to a party to meet a girl, he has the reaction you'd expect. No way. But she presses the point, and off he goes. And Alicia is certainly something to look at. Not much to be with though. Obnoxious, pretty much. But the approach of telling her so and walking away seems to be some sort of magic for soon enough, she's at his side and pulling him back to the living room.

Alicia is not the kind of girl Sam would have expected to go for him. But she did. And soon his life has whittled down to a very small world. Mainly, Alicia. They hang out, they watch tv in her room, they have sex. That's about the extent of it. Which of course worries the parents. But as far as Sam and Alicia are concerned, everything's fine.

Until it's not.

Eventually, Sam goes back to skating. Somehow, one day he was tired of her. And rather than tell her, well, he just stopped going round, or answering calls. He figured she'd get the point. Unfortunately for him, there was this whole potential incident he'd kept to himself, and would like to have forgotten. So when he gets a text one morning at breakfast, he's not really surprised. He's not happy either. But he goes to meet her.

And then he runs away.

And comes back.

Out the window go the plans. In come a whole new slew of worries. Like death at parent's hands. And how can this work? And how can it be, even though he's pretty sure he knows that part. Not that he's telling anyone.

A couple of trips into the future while sleeping don't do much to make Sam feel any better about the way things have turned out, though when he gets to those moments in real time it turns out they're not so bad.

This is a pretty funny look into accidental pregnancy. While the subject is itself heavy, Sam's dealings with it, while oh so wrong at points, are a riot to read about. And in the end he does what's right, which is the important part. And things will be ok, or they won't, but not for lack of trying.(less)

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May 27, 2013 J. Trott rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 06, 2013 Aidan Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

The novel, “Slam” by Nick Hornby is about an average 16 year old boy named Sam living in London with his 32 year old mother. The book is basically about his whole life and how easy and great it is until he finds out that he has impregnated another 16 year old, Alicia. Some big themes in the book are how the slightest mistake can change your life forever. Also, the story goes along with how “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” His mother had a baby when she was 16 and now he is continuing...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Petula Darling rated it 3 of 5 stars

I loved the voice of the main character and laughed out loud on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, I really disliked the premise of this book.

possible spoilers below ......................
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Problem #1 is that I have a really hard time relating to 16 year-olds who choose to have and keep babies. I can understand not finding abortion to be an acceptable choice, but there are other options that would likely wo...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Ruth rated it 2 of 5 stars

Slam by Nick Hornby is the story of Sam, a skate boarding, 16 year old Tony Hawk fan who finally feels like his life is going pretty well. Having felt like life was pretty mediocre in the past, living alone with his single mother, and talking the most to his Tony Hawk posted on his ceiling over his bed. But now, his mom has finally dumped her loser boyfriend, his father started paying child support, and most importantly he started dating Alicia, a girl he thought was way out of his league. He i...more Slam by Nick Hornby is the story of Sam, a skate boarding, 16 year old Tony Hawk fan who finally feels like his life is going pretty well. Having felt like life was pretty mediocre in the past, living alone with his single mother, and talking the most to his Tony Hawk posted on his ceiling over his bed. But now, his mom has finally dumped her loser boyfriend, his father started paying child support, and most importantly he started dating Alicia, a girl he thought was way out of his league. He is quick to note that this good luck all seems unsettling – and is right in thinking so, because no more than a week after he and Alicia call it quits, she tells him that she’s pregnant. Being the son of teen parents himself, Sam is less than happy to give up his skateboarding lifestyle to raise a baby.
I have heard good things about Nick Hornby as an author, so when I discovered that he had written a Young Adult novel, I figured it was my chance to finally read one of his books. I was intrigued that the topic of teen pregnancy was being portrayed from the perspective of the young father instead of the girl. However, I was quickly disappointed by the narration and how the story was organized as a whole. The book was about half way over before it is revealed that Sam’s ex-girlfriend is pregnant, even though it is already spoiled in the book’s description. Also, Sam spends more time complaining to his Tony Hawk poster than talking to anyone else, and the author using snippets of Tony Hawk’s autobiography to respond to Sam just seemed awkward. This poster also “whizzed” Sam into the future a couple times, giving the readers scenes that spoil a lot of later plot developments for the reader. As for the characters, I found them to be rather underdeveloped, making it hard to connect with any of them, giving me little intrigue to continue on with the book.
Seeing as this book deals with the topics of teen pregnancy and sex, I wouldn’t recommend this book to any YA reader until they reached high school. This book could be good for reluctant male readers, especially any skateboarding or Tony Hawk fans. Also, since there isn’t much focus or insight into the pregnant girlfriend and what she’s dealing with, I would probably wouldn’t recommend it to female students. Overall, this book’s awkward plot structure and lack of focus, with a mediocre narrator and vague underlying lesson makes me pretty sure that I’ll never suggest this book to anybody, or pick it up again myself.
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Mar 15, 2013 Christina Fixemer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sam is a skater. Not a roller skater, but a skateboarder. He loves Tony Hawk and working out new skateboard tricks. He also loves his mum, even though she's young enough to be an older sister. But everything changes when his ex-girlfriend delivers the news: she's pregnant.

Now that he faces fatherhood as a very young man, Sam must make adult-sized choices. He's determined to do the right thing. His father didn't, and he's grown up seeing how it has affected his mother. But sometimes doing the rig...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Jack C rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is about a fifteen year old boy named Sam who has lots of complications in his life that he narrates. Sam is a normal, practical, typical teenage boy that is involved with sports, parents, and a girlfriend. I would put this book under fiction because this book has some realistic activities that go on in the book that happen all the time in real life. This book would be more for the teenagers who are maturing and growing because there are some very mature situations that go on in this b...more This book is about a fifteen year old boy named Sam who has lots of complications in his life that he narrates. Sam is a normal, practical, typical teenage boy that is involved with sports, parents, and a girlfriend. I would put this book under fiction because this book has some realistic activities that go on in the book that happen all the time in real life. This book would be more for the teenagers who are maturing and growing because there are some very mature situations that go on in this book that should not be subjected to kids under the age of thirteen. In my opinion, this book will give you something you can take when you are done with the book for later on in life. This book has a great life lesson that lots of kids should know about.

Sam faces many challenges throughout this book that he must learn to overcome. The most difficult situation that Sam has gotten into is that he got his girlfriend Alicia pregnant. “I was thinking a lot while I was mooching around. Most of it was just the same little thought, over and over again: I’ve got a baby, I’ve got a baby, I’ve got a baby. Or: I’m going to have a baby, I’m going to have a baby. (See I didn’t know whether I had one or whether I was going to have one – whether that was it, now, whether my old life was over, or whether Tony Hawk was going to project me back into it at some stage)” (98). This quote is an example of what difficult time Sam is going through because he can’t tell what is real and what is a dream although he does know that Alicia is pregnant. For Sam it’s only a matter of knowing what’s real and what’s not.

This book takes place in England and this book addresses the pain and suffering that lots of teenagers experience around the world, not just in England. The author uses great material for this book and while reading it, it almost seemed as if it’s happened to the author himself. Authors don’t like to use realism but this author does with Slam. Hornby has done a magnificent job making it realistic and it really gives the reader a feel for what it’s like being in those types of situations even if the reader has no idea what those situations are really like.

The overall feel for this story is a mix of sadness and happiness with a hint of funny. At the same time, it’s more of shock and disbelief. The author integrated all of these feelings and emotions into this book because a book is boring with only one consistent feel/mood. A combination of moods however, switches up the story a little just to make the book a little less predictable and a little more interesting. Like when Sam went over to Alicia’s house for a party and they didn't like each other very much, they ended up having a kid together.

This book is great; I learned a lot from it and it has some great life lessons that other teens should know about and carry with them. This book would be on the top of my reading list. I would recommend this book to all teens. This book will give you something you can take when you are done with the book for later on in life. This book has a great life lesson that lots of kids should know about.
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Nov 08, 2012 Deidre rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting first YA entry by Mr. Hornby. I do think that the book was pretty insightful into the mindset of a 15 year old boy. One who's just an average student in an everyday world; a kid whose life is filled with school, skating, and his first real girlfriend. A kid who has to chew on things a bit in order to fully understand and process how he feels about them.

While I'm not saying that Hornby wrote the perfect "every boy" in his character of Sam, I do think (as a parent) that this is a book...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Kathryn Soll rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nick Hornby is one of my favorite authors because of his satirical style, and this book is one of the finest pieces of young adult fiction that I have read. Though we get many glimpses in the world of teen pregnancy in this genre, Slam is the first which describes the experience from a male standpoint. However, the real standout of this novel are the beautifully flawed characters-Sam is a slightly naive sixteen year old father, Alicia a flighty girl of the same age, though Hornby's true masterpi...more

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About Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is the author of the novels A Long Way Down, Slam, How to Be Good, High Fidelity, and About a Boy, and the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, Shakespeare Wrote for Money, and The Polysyllabic Spree, as well as the editor of the short-story collection Speaking with the Angel. He is a recipient of the American Acade...more

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“There are many differences between a baby and an I-Pod. And one of the biggest is, no ones going to mug you for your baby.” — 45 people liked it

“I hate time. It never does what you want it to.” — 32 people liked it

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