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Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Selzer, A. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
A committed slacker enlists the help of his best friend (who may or may not be the devil) to get his act together in this novel filled with humor, awkwardness, and honesty, ideal for fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower .
Leon Harris isn't exceptional and he isn't popular. He's the kind of guy that peaked in middle school, when once upon a time he was in the "gifted" program and on the fast track to Ivy League glory.
Now, a high school senior, he's a complete slacker who spends his time hanging out in a third-rate ice cream parlor with his best friend, Stan, a guy who (jokingly, Leon thinks) claims to be Satan. Committed to his sloth, Leon panics when he finds out that Anna, the love of his life aka middle school girlfriend, might be moving back to town.
Determined to get his act together, Leon asks Stan for help. Stan gives him a few seemingly random and mysterious assignments. Date a popular girl. Listen to Moby-Dick , the audiobook. Find the elusive white grape slushee. Join the yearbook committee.
As each task brings Leon one step away from slacker city and one step closer to Anna, he starts to wonder if maybe he shouldn't have promised Stan his soul after all...
Author Notes
Adam Selzer lived in Des Moines back before it was cool, then tried out a series of small Georgia towns that will probably never be cool before settling in Chicago. In addition to several books on Chicago history and ghostlore, he's the author of several young adult and middle grade novels, including Play Me Backwards , How To Get Suspended and Influence People (which is part of the ALA's Banned Books Week packet), I Kissed a Zombie and I liked It , and Sparks (under the name SJ Adams, a Stonewall Honor book for 2013). He has seen Bob Dylan in concert more than forty times, holds a world record for "Most Richard Nixon jokes in a Children's Book," and often performs music, both solo and with various bands, at science fiction conventions. Visit him online at AdamSelzer.com.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up-Having Satan for a best friend doesn't mean you get everything you want, but for Leon, it is enough. Leon is content to work a dead-end job at a second-rate ice-cream parlor, get high, think about sex, and make no plans for the future. His buddy Satan is actually Stan, a kid who self-identified as the Prince of Darkness when he was nine and uses his powers to stir up trouble. When Leon hears that his ex-girlfriend, Anna, who he has been dreaming of for years, is returning from London, the idea of living the life of a loser has much less appeal. Inexplicably, Stan assigns Leon to listen to the unabridged audiobook of Moby Dick, which he does by driving around Iowa aimlessly. On one of these excursions, Leon meets Paige, a popular girl, and they begin dating. Stan assigns them to search for a rare Slushee flavor, which gives them something to do together, but these random assignments are often forgotten until the story needs somewhere to go, giving it an unpolished feeling. Selzer is full of outstanding similies and hilarity and his teen boy characters are crude and disgusting, but also extremely vulnerable. A main theme in Leon's life is his performance anxiety. A couple of bad sexual experiences have left him feeling inadequate and petrified, but his relationship with Paige provides the opportunity for them both to discover the fun in relationships and sex. By the end of the book, they have broken up, Leon has grown up a little, and when Anna returns, he is ready to meet her again. Leon is a likable narrator full of real-world worries and flaws, but the storytelling can be stilted and the point, at times, hard to find.-Heather Acerro, Rochester Public Library, MN (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Leon Harris is a quintessential slacker, whiling away his high school years working at a "B-list ice cream parlor" with an unpopular bunch of misfits including his best friend Stan, who tells everyone he's actually Satan and that "My parents just leave out the first A so I can go to St. Pius." After Leon comes to the Valentine's Day rescue of popular Paige Becwar, he ends up falling for her, even as the girl of his dreams, Anna B, might be returning to Iowa after years of living in England. Selzer (I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It) packs the story with bawdy, hormonal humor and scenes of Leon, Stan, Paige and their friends talking about life and sex, playing invented games to pass the time, or embarking on faux-heroic quests to find a rare "Slushee" flavor, inspired by Ahab's quest in Moby-Dick. It's a mordantly funny story of a teenager bumbling headlong into love and sex while caught in high-school limbo, waiting for life to kick into gear. Ages 14-up. Agent: Adrienne Rosado, Nancy Yost Literary Agency. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In his final year of high school, Leon must choose between maintaining his comfortable existence or blowing it all up to chase something greater. Leon is on track to do nothing extraordinary with his life. He works at the local ice cream shop alongside his best friend, Stan, and hangs out with the screwballs and weirdos that come in. The gang shuns such bourgeois drudgery as the SATs and college applications in favor of typical teenage tomfoolery, but there's a fine line between a smart, bored kid and a burnout. Leon is the former. When a few moments of chance bring him and popular girl Paige together, Leon begins to shake out of his slacker stupor. This is a particularly smart and sweet teenage love story, refusing to rely on burning passion or overwrought sentiment. There's an emotional maturity in the way Selzer draws Leon and Paige's courtship. It is by far the best part of the book. Less engaging are the peripheral characters, particularly Stan, a kid who believes that he's the devil himself. The character and his influence on the story just don't work, and time spent with him feels wasted when it could be spent elsewhere. Leon's journey to personal responsibility is another topic well-tackled, making this an engaging, character-driven piece with several pros that mightily outweigh the cons. Surprisingly heartfelt. (Fiction. 14-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
When Leon realizes that his life peaked in middle school, he turns to a logical source of help, best friend and fellow teen Stan (Satan, to his minions), whose advice includes oddly specific assignments: listening to the audiobook of Moby-Dick, seeking the Holy Grail of slushee flavors, and saying yes way too often for comfort. Along the way, Stan tells Leon of a dire-sounding prophecy and recounts his difficulty ruling the un-air-conditioned side of the afterlife, as the two rule their own version of heaven on earth at the Ice Cave, which might be the worst ice-cream joint in the universe. Characterization is chief among Selzer's achievements here; Leon and Stan's erstwhile slacker, stoner, and outcast associates are timelessly true to life. Leon's misadventures and accidental discoveries will keep readers flipping pages to see each successive struggle he will face. A diabolically funny, slacker-makes-good coming-of-age story in the tradition of Rob Thomas' Rats Saw God (1996).--Howerton, Erin Downey Copyright 2014 Booklist