48 Shades of Brown
3 journalers for this copy...
Good read, but not great. I suppose the fact that I'm not a 17 year old Aussie male might have something to do with it. This book won Australia's Children's Book Council Book of the Year for Older Readers award, so someone somewhere considered it outstanding. Parts of it were witty, but at other points it dragged for me. I'll probably be sending this out in a bookbox after the first of the year.
I read this quickly & put it back in MarciNYC's Young Adult Bookbox. It was good -- sort of a YA Australian Nick Hornby. Strangely punctuated: there are no quotation marks and dialogue other than Dan's is set in italics but the speaker is not identified, which can be confusing when there are two or more other people in the room. Read more at NickEarls.com.
From Booklist
Grades 10-12
Like Hillary Frank's Better Than Running at Night, this Australian import is an unusually sharp-eyed, witty view of an older teen's anxious first year of independence. When his parents move to Geneva, Switzerland, Dan stays in Brisbane for his senior year of high school, living with his slightly older aunt, Jacq, a university student. Dan instantly falls for sexy Naomi, Jacq's housemate, and he tries to win her with the same zeal he applies to his rigorous academics, even as he struggles with a bewildering home so different from the "well-parented," "beige suburban castle" where he has grown up. Dan's minute analysis of events and his own flaws may slow readers who demand swift plots, although the story wraps up with several surprises. Older teens will relish Dan's wry, self-deprecating honesty about attraction, sex (mostly overheard), beer, calculus, and his uproariously funny, earnest search for the kind of guy he wants to be. Named Australia's Children's Book Council Book of the Year.
From Booklist
Grades 10-12
Like Hillary Frank's Better Than Running at Night, this Australian import is an unusually sharp-eyed, witty view of an older teen's anxious first year of independence. When his parents move to Geneva, Switzerland, Dan stays in Brisbane for his senior year of high school, living with his slightly older aunt, Jacq, a university student. Dan instantly falls for sexy Naomi, Jacq's housemate, and he tries to win her with the same zeal he applies to his rigorous academics, even as he struggles with a bewildering home so different from the "well-parented," "beige suburban castle" where he has grown up. Dan's minute analysis of events and his own flaws may slow readers who demand swift plots, although the story wraps up with several surprises. Older teens will relish Dan's wry, self-deprecating honesty about attraction, sex (mostly overheard), beer, calculus, and his uproariously funny, earnest search for the kind of guy he wants to be. Named Australia's Children's Book Council Book of the Year.
Adding this one to my TBR pile which is growing at a very fast rate of speed.
