Review: PLAY ME BACKWARDS by Adam Selzer
Full disclosure: Satan may or may not be a major character in this book. This will either hook you or turn you off immediately. For me, it was a hook.
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, August 2014.
Adam Selzer‘s latest takes place in his fictional Des Moines suburb of Cornersville Trace (which I lovingly think of as the Selzerverse) — your typical suburban town where nothing cool ever seems to happen (though if you’ve read his other books, you know this isn’t really true) and it’s easy for an outcast to slip through the cracks. PLAY ME BACKWARDS falls the story of one-time kid genius and current slacker extraordinaire Leon Harris. Leon spends most of his time at a seriously podunk ice cream shop that doubles as a hang-out for him and his rag-tag group of weird, not-really-but-kind-of-Satanist friends. Including Stan, of course, who claims to be Satan himself. When Leon gets a message from his old girlfriend — Anna, who broke Leon’s heart when she moved to England and went incommunicado — he is determined to be the guy she left behind. He wants to get his act together, and with the help of Stan, he’s pretty sure he can do it. Of course, the price is his soul and a list of seemingly-absurd Herculean tasks to complete before Anna is supposedly returning to Cornserville.
But, of course, much like in our beloved classics like THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER or AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES, this isn’t a story about the journey. This is a story about the characters, about who they are and what they stand for and what they think they stand for and what they will stand for when their eyes open up a little bit. It probably starts when Leon gives a popular cheerleader-type a ride home from a fast food restaurant on Valentine’s Day. There’s also the listening to the complete Moby Dick audiobook, and the yearbook committee, and the big Satanist not-quite-movement at the high school.
As you might imagine, hilarity ensues. Like, the laugh-out-loud kind of hilarity that you’ve come to expect from the Selzerverse. Because nobody does YA satire like Adam Selzer.
Fans of the bildungsroman really need to get their hands on this book. Like, now. It’s twisted and weird and beautiful and funny and even occasionally heart-breaking. This is a don’t-miss book. I take back what I said at the beginning. If Satan as a sidekick turns you off, maybe you should read this book anyway. Because it’s the kind of book that unifies the way WALLFLOWER unifies. It makes you think, it makes you mad, it makes you love. Hey, award committees, put a shiny sticker on this one.
