we-ell (always a good way to start a review)...avoiding the easy Salinger comparisons that inevitably arise whenever anyone writes something that isn't terrible featuring a protaganist under the age of eighteen or so, even if the comparison doesn't really fit, the book does capture a bit of that queer confusion surrounding being eleven or twelve. At the same time, the narrator's just a little too precocious for the book to ring true, and the various plotlines never really weave together into a cohesive, believable unit. This isn't to say the book's terrible, or even really bad, by any means. It's a breeze to read and Meno can turn a phrase that makes reading even a disjointed, unbelievable story a pleasure - but turns of phrase a fine piece of fiction do not make.

ps - i'm not going to review it because i read it several years ago, but another of Meno's books, hairstyles of the damned is as fine a book on adolescence as you'll ever read - and it doesn't even stoop to using an unreliable narrator.