Nick McDonell is just 18 years old and has written this book, his first novel. The reviews sound really good. eg "Nick McDonell is the real thing, a powerful young writer with the look of a dangerous freak and very sharp teeth. The ration of age to talent is horrifying. His trick is he writes the truth." Hunter S Thompson

Fantastic story of my youth. No that's not right, but it certainly seemed familiar to me. I think my buddy Jeff would really like this book. It reminded me so much of my times as an angst ridden teenager. Is this authour the new Douglas Coupland?

Picked up at the meetup tonight.

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I'm not really sure if I liked this book or not. The whole "bored rich kids" thing normally puts me off, but the air of outsiderness to the narration made it more interesting. The conclusion was a bit predictable.

However for a young writer, it was reasonably impressive, and I think there's potential there for some really good writing, once he settles down and finds his own voice (I reckon I could tell you exactly which authors he has on his bookshelves, because their influence on his writing style is obvious throughout).

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Given to Marcie130 at tonight's meetup.

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Great story, very scary as it seems so real and I'd rather keep my innocence/ignorance. I'm hoping to go to New York one day so I also enjoyed the descriptions of the city.

Picked up to take to Wellington

Picked up from the book buffet tables, at some point during the convention. I seem to have managed to bring quite a few books back to Christchurch, where they came from! Apologies to anyone who thought their book might travel a bit further afield. Photo is of the mystery guest at the meet and greet.

Interesting story - disaffected youth in various guises - but as FC pointed out, a little predictable. I think this writer is trying too hard, but there was definitely 'something there'. I won't be hanging out for his next book though - I think others in this genre have done it better.

Picked up at Trattorie Cafe when I went there for a date with my man.

The ending of this book as said before what predictable but sickening none the less. I liked his descriptions of the poverty and dirtiness of New York, the bums and Chinatown. All the female characters in this annoyed me, the males were mostly one-track-mind guys but at least were all a bit ugly so were self-doubting, the girls however were all really pretty and self-centered. Really really boring. But in spite of that, you ended up liking all the characters and thus the ending's predictability was upsetting. The parent's again are also annoying all distinct and largely uncaring.

The constant high literature references that the author kept dropping also got annoying - yes he's read some good books but he doesn't need to remind us - he needs to write a good book, not remind us what we should be reading.

I thought it was really funny that Hunter S. Thompson wrote a review of this book, Nick McDonell's father is one of Thompson's best friends! There even is a character in the story called Hunter, Mike's best friend. Also you are very aware from the start that the White Mike protagonist on the story is in some ways based on McDonnell. If you look at the picture on the back McDonell looks like his description of White Mike where as in other photos he looks more like a model that a scary drug dealer.

McDonell's second novel "The Third Brother" is about a 19yo Harvard student deeply affected by his time spent in Bangkok. The author himself spent time interning for a magazine in Bangkok while attending Harvard. The editor of which now works for his father on "Sports Illustrated". It seems to me that McDonell is part of the upper crust snob class that this book so derides - also it is not surprising that all the girls in the book are pretty as he probably knows a lot of Sport Illustrated models.

I'm given this book a 7 because even though I've written a lot about what I didn't like - I wouldn't have cared so much if it was bad.

RELEASE NOTES:

On Level 2, outside the library on a desk under the blue noticeboard.