Youth in Revolt

I literally just started this book today, so I'm only on the sixth page, and don't know anything about the plot yet. But so far, I love this book. It's so awkward and real. Not awkward in a cute way, awkward in a kind of gross, weird, adolescent way.The fact that Nick Twisp is so honest about how 'weird' he is, makes it more acceptable to the reader. He isn't hiding that he has weird fantasies and stuff, he doesn't embrace it either, I respect his awkwardness, in a way. And what's great about the way the writer portrays Nick, is that she still manages to make him likeable. Maybe it's the fact that in reality, his life is sort of terrible-his dad doesn't really like him, (actually his dad is just...a big terrible person) and his mom wants him to be something he isn't. Life isn't easy for Nick, and that makes us feel sympathy for him, even if he's totally gross. But you still like him! We can still connect to him, in our own, screwed up way.

Nick is basically all the awkward and hidden secret parts of us that we don't share with anyone. All those weird curious and unsure feelings we have during puberty are basically Nick Twisp. And you have to love that. You have to love that he can actually admit these things (to his diary...eheh). One quote from this book that I really love, is when Nick's mother tells him he's insane, and he responds 'I'm being a teenager'.

I think that is one of the most true things I've ever heard. I think that at one point, you just snap. Teenagers seem like these crazy, mentally deranged, strange things. And they totally are. No one can understand a teenager. (except for maybe other teenagers.) I think that that's the cool thing. They're so into their own world, in a sort of inbetween, that to everyone looking in at them, they seem like strange creatures with twisted morals and twisted minds. And Nick can show you, that is SO totally not the case. Nick can show you the thought process-how everything sort of does make sense, in his weird, awkward and sad life (while managing to be hilarious and upbeat, as well).

I can't wait to continue this book to see what Nick's adolescence has in store...