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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/378579.I_Love_You_Beth_Cooper?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="I Love You, Beth Cooper" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1174314554m/378579.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/378579.I_Love_You_Beth_Cooper?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">I Love You, Beth Cooper</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/215658.Larry_Doyle">Larry Doyle</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20783220?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars When I read this book, I had no idea that the author, first-time novelist Larry Doyle, was an established television writer, with writing credits for "Daria," "Beavis and Butthead," and "The Simpsons," but I easily could have guessed. I Love You, Beth Cooper has the frantic pace and zany, unrealistic plot points that are necessary to keeping a television audience (especially the youthful ones of the aforementioned shows) interested for the whole half-hour. It is full to bursting with cliches of high school and suburbia and the scenes all feel like they are cut and pasted from less than average teen movies, but damn it, it works. This novel reads like a movie; if all the creative people behind Superbad could merge into one and create a novel, this would be that novel. The humor is very similar, and I think it works even better on the page. Indeed, the laughs-per-page ratio found in Beth Cooper is one of the highest I've ever encountered (I suppose the only close competition here would be America: The Book and Good Omens).
 
 
 Like Superbad, the main thrust of the action in I Love You, Beth Cooper takes place within a single evening in the lives of a pair of geeky high school boys. Denis and Rich have just graduated from a suburban high school in Illinois and are making a lame attempt to make the most of their graduation night after Denis's extremely unconventional valedictorian speech: in "the stilted manner of adolescent public speakers throughout history," Denis Cooverman stood in front of the entire assembled audience and declared his love for hyper-popular, uber-pretty, head-cheerleading Beth Cooper, the blond goddess who has sat in front of him in alphabetical order for a dozen years of public education.
 
 Shortly after, Denis and Rich are the only guests at Denis's graduation party (the first of two teenage parties featuring alcohol and totally unsupervised: this one is a nice twist as the only alcohol is a warm bottle of champagne left by Denis's parents for a bit of modest celebration). The pair are stunned when unlikely plot point no. 1 brings Beth and her interchangeable best friends to Denis's house. The mishaps and the cliches escalate at an exponential rate as Beth drags Denis into her party girl lifestyle for the evening. A second house party (this one with copious amounts of alcohol and, again, no parental supervision), an angry and extremely violent boyfriend, a cabin in the woods, a shower scene, a chase, a heroic rescue, multiple fist fights and a few brushes with death leave Denis completely disillusioned; the girl he has idealized for his entire adolescence is nothing more than human, and very flawed at that. This is a girl who comes only a hair's breadth from performing sex acts to get alcohol, a girl who sleeps around, a girl who hasn't planned for her future, a girl who is, in all likelihood, already past her peak.
 
 I Love You, Beth Cooper is, in a lot of ways, a sad story about growing up and the changes that everyone faces in that time surrounding high school graduation; the extended adolescence provided by American culture is over and the real world beckons. It's this juxtaposition of innocence and maturity that provides such a wealth of material for all of the many, many books and movies and television shows centered on it. Beth Cooper, for all of its emotional heft, is still primarily a screamingly funny and excessively entertaining read; it would be a mistake to pass it by, especially if your memories of high school graduation are still fresh.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1072305?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Maggie's review
rating:
bookshelves: books-to-make-you-chuckle
recommended for: anyone who likes a funny book

When I read this book, I had no idea that the author, first-time novelist Larry Doyle, was an established television writer, with writing credits for "Daria," "Beavis and Butthead," and "The Simpsons," but I easily could have guessed. I Love You, Beth Cooper has the frantic pace and zany, unrealistic plot points that are necessary to keeping a television audience (especially the youthful ones of the aforementioned shows) interested for the whole half-hour. It is full to bursting with cliches of high school and suburbia and the scenes all feel like they are cut and pasted from less than average teen movies, but damn it, it works. This novel reads like a movie; if all the creative people behind Superbad could merge into one and create a novel, this would be that novel. The humor is very similar, and I think it works even better on the page. Indeed, the laughs-per-page ratio found in Beth Cooper is one of the highest I've ever encountered (I suppose the ...more When I read this book, I had no idea that the author, first-time novelist Larry Doyle, was an established television writer, with writing credits for "Daria," "Beavis and Butthead," and "The Simpsons," but I easily could have guessed. I Love You, Beth Cooper has the frantic pace and zany, unrealistic plot points that are necessary to keeping a television audience (especially the youthful ones of the aforementioned shows) interested for the whole half-hour. It is full to bursting with cliches of high school and suburbia and the scenes all feel like they are cut and pasted from less than average teen movies, but damn it, it works. This novel reads like a movie; if all the creative people behind Superbad could merge into one and create a novel, this would be that novel. The humor is very similar, and I think it works even better on the page. Indeed, the laughs-per-page ratio found in Beth Cooper is one of the highest I've ever encountered (I suppose the only close competition here would be America: The Book and Good Omens).

Like Superbad, the main thrust of the action in I Love You, Beth Cooper takes place within a single evening in the lives of a pair of geeky high school boys. Denis and Rich have just graduated from a suburban high school in Illinois and are making a lame attempt to make the most of their graduation night after Denis's extremely unconventional valedictorian speech: in "the stilted manner of adolescent public speakers throughout history," Denis Cooverman stood in front of the entire assembled audience and declared his love for hyper-popular, uber-pretty, head-cheerleading Beth Cooper, the blond goddess who has sat in front of him in alphabetical order for a dozen years of public education.

Shortly after, Denis and Rich are the only guests at Denis's graduation party (the first of two teenage parties featuring alcohol and totally unsupervised: this one is a nice twist as the only alcohol is a warm bottle of champagne left by Denis's parents for a bit of modest celebration). The pair are stunned when unlikely plot point no. 1 brings Beth and her interchangeable best friends to Denis's house. The mishaps and the cliches escalate at an exponential rate as Beth drags Denis into her party girl lifestyle for the evening. A second house party (this one with copious amounts of alcohol and, again, no parental supervision), an angry and extremely violent boyfriend, a cabin in the woods, a shower scene, a chase, a heroic rescue, multiple fist fights and a few brushes with death leave Denis completely disillusioned; the girl he has idealized for his entire adolescence is nothing more than human, and very flawed at that. This is a girl who comes only a hair's breadth from performing sex acts to get alcohol, a girl who sleeps around, a girl who hasn't planned for her future, a girl who is, in all likelihood, already past her peak.

I Love You, Beth Cooper is, in a lot of ways, a sad story about growing up and the changes that everyone faces in that time surrounding high school graduation; the extended adolescence provided by American culture is over and the real world beckons. It's this juxtaposition of innocence and maturity that provides such a wealth of material for all of the many, many books and movies and television shows centered on it. Beth Cooper, for all of its emotional heft, is still primarily a screamingly funny and excessively entertaining read; it would be a mistake to pass it by, especially if your memories of high school graduation are still fresh....less

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