Picture drawn by Maggie Stiefvater, 2009. Header made by S.F. Robertson, 2010.

Friday, September 2, 2016

The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle

The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle
"Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry used to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister Annabeth. Of course, that was all before—before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa…and before the car accident that changed everything.

Enter: Geoff, Quinn’s best friend who insists it’s time that Quinn came out—at least from hibernation. One haircut later, Geoff drags Quinn to his first college party, where instead of nursing his pain, he meets a guy—okay, a hot guy—and falls, hard. What follows is an upside-down week in which Quinn begins imagining his future as a screenplay that might actually have a happily-ever-after ending—if, that is, he can finally step back into the starring role of his own life story."- summary from Amazon

I've been meaning to read Federle's stuff for years now, and have finally gotten around to one and I absolutely loved it!! It was such a great coming-of-age gay story that dealt with the harder issue of death and learning how to get back to your life while still honoring the one you lost. Quinn is an extremely relateable main character and I really enjoyed how little there was on the actual coming-out aspect of the story; it was refreshing to see it happen early on in the book and then moving forward into that next step of being honest with everyone about who you are. Federle peppers the novel with screenplay bits when Quinn starts to step away from what's really happening and making up how he wants his life to go, which never pans out right once back in the real world. Even with some of the heavier issues in the book, Federle keeps things light and funny throughout the story, providing many laugh out loud moments. Overall, a fantastic YA debut and I really need to get my hands on his middle-grade books now!

FTC: Received e-galley from Edelweiss. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.

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