“I thought you’d be bigger.”

48. The Grounding of Group Six – Julian F. Thompson

For me, this book has a bit of a reputation. I knew I had to read it, but I was also dreading it a little bit, because when you decide that you’re going to write this one kind of story and then you hear about a YA book from the 1980s that has a similar plot and you’re totally immersed in pop culture and read a ton of 1980s YA but you hadn’t come across this yet…it causes a rumble of anxiety. So imagine my surprise when I started reading it and got a smidge bored. Surprise.

To me, Thompson copped out, in a few areas. The book could best be described as “murky,” like when I put too much paint in one spot trying to fix something I didn’t realize wasn’t going to work when I started. Losing the light areas means I lose the depth of color I want and The Grounding of Group Six could have used more depth. The characters overlapped a little too much for me and the significance of the situation as a whole was glossed over emotionally throughout the book in favor of somewhat effective revengencing. The antagonists were definitely interesting, but reading about the main group just made me feel like I was reading The Breakfast Club, camping edition. And that would have been okay if any larger, emotionally significant choices had been made. Too many near misses.

The photographic choice I made to let Belvedere’s little white pants be the focus in this photo instead of Mortemer’s adorable face is my analogy of the process of making choices while writing this book.

Mixtape:

1. Underachievers March and Fight Song – Archers of Loaf

2. Fairweather Friends – Queens of the Stone Age

3. Secret Plans – Eagles of Death Metal

4. The Deadenin’ – Legendary Shack Shakers

5. When God Comes Back – All Them Witches

6. Overkill (Live) – Motorhead

7. My Own Bare Hands – Ween

8. Mudslide – The Darkness

9. Got the Power – Eagles of Death Metal

10. I’m Not a Young Man Anymore – The Wolfmen

11. Climb Safely – Restavrant

12. Lazy as Fuck – Evil Cowards

13. Don’t Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy) – Ween

14. Always Looking – Dum Dum Girls

15. Kissy Kissy – The Kills

16. Staring at the Sun – TV on the Radio

17. Fault Line – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club