"okay, can you show me on the dolly where the book touched you?"



this wasn't supposed to happen.

i mean, ugh - teen humor week?? i was expecting beavis and butthead, or the kind of stuff my high school boyfriend found funny, which is best left in the archives. i was only going to read one book from the list; the bare minimum, to give the old overachiever knob a rest, but i ended up reading three, and two of them were actually really good! but with each of them, i am pulling a caris (don't tell his wife!!!)( <------- an example of what i thought teen humor would be like) and rating these as an objective reader. no, this book is not as good as within a budding grove, but it is a really good teen book with depth and heart and - yes - humor, which should probably be read by a wider audience. it is a perfect book for its exploration of both the sorrow and the release of death (this is only a spoiler if you don't plan on reading the first page)

basic plot for everyone except jasmine - teenage boy, upset that his dad is banging his former third grade teacher (the boy's, not the dad's, you sicko) gets tanked, takes mom's car, crashes, vomits, decapitates a lawn gnome, gets sent to do community service at a nursing home, where he is forced to babysit/entertain a grouchy old jew with emphysema. also family and friendship-confusion and some jazz guitar.

and i am not ashamed to admit that i totally got sideswiped by the big "reveal". so - well played, sonnenblick!this round to you!

i swear, i didn't cry, but some calloused bits of my heart got pumiced a little.

thanks for the rec, ariel!!