I really did not like this book, especially the band name essay at the end. ( )

Funny and full of ferocious attitude. So fucking GOOD! ( )

I received a free copy of this novel through the Arcycling blog

Ritchie has a bad attitude. He kinda has a few reasons for the chip on his shoulder; his dad left, his sister was killed by a drunk driver, and his mom decided to become a lesbian. Plus he’s in juvie, serving a ninety day sentence and there are two boys who would love to get rid of him.

He tells his story from the moment him and his best friend (only friend) Elliot Hella a.k.a. El Hella, decide to form a band and enter in a battle of the bands type contest. El Hella is a bit intense, more serious about the possibility of becoming rich and famous. He pushes Ritchie hard and Ritchie doesn’t always respond well.

The story goes back and forth from his time in juvie to his life before. In his life before, he lusts after the hot girl of the school, Ravenna, and bides his time messing with the ex-frumpy girl that’s turning into a cute punk chick. He gets lectures from his mom’s girlfriend about not being such a teenage hardass because it will get him nowhere in life.

In juvie, he spends his time trying not to get his ass beat. He makes one friend B’lo, a quiet boy that gets library duty with him. He writes song lyrics, and is forced to see the therapist.

Throughout the book you can feel something building, but you don’t know why he’s in juvie until the end of the book. Once you know, you finally understand why he’s been such an A-Hole.

Most of the book, I though “man are all teenage boys this freakin’ obnoxious?!” But I get it, the angry teenager vibe because you’ve been dealt a crappy hand. A lot of us have been there, I wasn’t exactly a nice teenager either.

It’s a rough coming of age book; Ritchie learns a lot harder of a lesson than most characters in these types of books. Ritchie pissed me off a lot with his stunts but I’m old and cranky.

Overall, I liked this book more when I finished it than when I was reading it but I read it fast and it keep me interested. I recommend if you are looking for a coming of age that’s a little different than the normal YA book. ( )

The latest from Sean Beaudoin, WISE YOUNG FOOL, is the kind of book that sits with you. The characters feel real, like people you've just spent a bunch of time hanging out with, and closing the book feels like saying goodbye. And rather than review this book, I feel like Richie Sudden would be okay with me making a short list of things you should know about WISE YOUNG FOOL before you dive in. (Which you should, it's fantastic.)

1. Richie Sudden, our hero, narrates this story alternating between segments before he ended up on juvie and in journal entries that narrate his experience in juvie. Sean Beaudoin executes this method with all the cleverness you'd expect from the master of snark.

2. If you haven't recently brushed up on your classic rock references, Richie and his cohorts will give you a run for your money. Watch for the Def Leppard drummer joke in chapter 8.

3. Parental figures in this book are actually present, and flawed, and interesting. Richie is generally unhappy with most of these authorities, but, then again, that's his job as a high school year old metal head.

4. The worst thing that could possibly happen to Richie is to miss and/or lose the forthcoming battle of the bands event. His best friend is counting on him. And, whether Richie knows it or not, so is his future.

5. Of course that's all before juvie, where the worst thing that could happen to him is Spence Proffer and his sadistic fight club.

6. And then there's Ravenna. She's really, really, really hot.

WISE YOUNG FOOL is stupid good. It's thrilling, it's charming, it's witty, and it's a book you clearly need to get your hands on. ( )

I put this on my pile as part of my recent efforts to read more current YA with male protagonists. "Current YA with male protagonists," by the way, is the compromise term I have come with up to make me feel less guilty about thinking of YA books as girls' books or boys' books, because while I feel strongly that ALL BOOKS ARE FOR ALL PEOPLE (like dinosaurs), I have to grudgingly admit that everyone in the free world (who reads YA) knows what is meant by girls' books and boys' books. Whenever I describe something that way, I feel like I am swallowing the party line of the patrimony, but then of course whenever I act like there's no difference between girls' books and boys' books, I realize I'm coming across like a total tool.

So our male protagonist here is Ritchie Sudden, and the story is in the form of his journal. It's written in juvenile detention, and in parallel tells both the story of how he got sent to the detention center and what happened to him once he got there. The primary focus is in the events leading up to his arrest.

The basics of the book didn't particularly appeal to me at first, I've never been a big fan of juvie literature, probably because in 8th grade we had to read Bless the Beasts and the Children, not in English, but in Health Class for the purpose (it wasn't at all clear AT THE TIME, at the time it seemed like it was from out of left field, but looking back, there was a purpose) of goading us into talking about "teen issues" in some sad "rap session" format. I'm dying all over again just describing it. Those kids were actually at some weird camp, now that I think about it, but yeah, trapped in an institution.

The other thing is that Ritchie plays guitar in a hardcore band, and A LOT of the book is about that, and my interest in that is so zero I can't even express it. I didn't even care about bands when I was a teenager. Again, there was A LOT about being in a band. A LOT.

But yet, this book was such a good time. The writing is extremely tight and Beaudoin nails the dialogue consistently. There's something that reminds me a little of John Green -- not in style or tone, which is completely different -- but in the sense that the characters are speaking and thinking in the ways that your very best teen self aspired to. One big difference is that I'm always very aware of this in Green's books (and I don't mind it at all), but here it wasn't on the surface so much, it's something I realized only after finishing the book. It's very, very funny without ever being slapstick.

All the teen characters feel very real and complete, the adults get a little blurry and archetypal, but I'm convinced this was something intentional on the author's part to illustrate the lens of Ritchie's world. It worked for me once I got it.

My only real complaint is that the structure of the book is built around a big reveal at the end - that's when you find out what Ritchie was arrested for -- and it was going for suspense ... you don't know, and then find out at the end. For me, this didn't quite work the way it was supposed to. Other than some very slight hints, you get all the information WAY at the end, and it felt more like a "completely random surprise" than something that suspenseful. It was not enough, and then way too much right at the conclusion. I would have liked more of an arc.

And just to keep up my reputation as a jackass pedant, I CANNOT stop myself from mentioning that you don't take the LSATs to go to prelaw. ( )