Knowing horror was coming did not stop the need to read each word.
A fascinating look into a myraid of people's lives.
A debut novel written by a 17-year-old young man, Twelve establishes the main character, White Mike, and the privileged kids that populate his drug-dealing world.
Changing points of view made it sometimes difficult to keep all of the characters straight, but it did not take long for all to mesh.
Worth another read when there is time. ( )

I spent the entire book wondering if anything was actually going to HAPPEN in this story. Then something happened. The author got tired of writing and decided to blow all his characters away with a bazooka. ( )

quick read. ( )

Twelve by Nick McDonell is the heart pounding, adrenaline rushing, euphoria feeling plot twister that screams to be not only read but heard and understood. White Mike is one of the most permanently indented characters in my mind. His skin is as pale as smoke. His IQ is off the charts. His mother is only an idea. His father is oblivious. If your good at something you stick with it. Right? Yes and no. White Mike acceled in school but was bored by it. White Mike acceled in dealing all sorts of narcotics and lived every second of his life by his beeper. Is White Mike a bad guy for selling drugs? Is he the cliche heartless, miserly, drug and woman abusing, "pay up or get sprayed up" drug dealer? He is well learned, sensitive, caring, and ultimately torn between two worlds. That is, life beyond drugs and the drug game. Will he be able to get out of the game before its too late? Is a blank, sanatized cell the only thing his future holds in store for him?

Twelve by Nick McDonell makes your limbs go numb and mind race all at the same time. It is a must read, cannot put down, wonder of a novel. It is the type of novel where the protagonist is constantly trying to avoid that ever present tingle in his mind saying, "What else is there for me?" ( )

Nick McDonell was just seventeen when he wrote Twelve. And I can tell you that this kid will one day probably write an excellent novel. But Twelve isn’t that novel. While the writing is outstanding the story reads like a bad Hollywood blockbuster, right down to the not-so-surprising surprise ending. McDonell hints at genius in his writing style, which avoids wordy descriptions and therefore moves along quickly. And it’s a good thing that the novel is quick moving and short (using the same wide margins loved by every seventeen year old student) because the characters and plot certainly don’t move the story along.

McDonell’s best-defined character, White Mike, is a NYC rich kid who takes a year off after high school to decide what he wants to do. What he ends up doing is selling (but never using) drugs to other NYC rich kids. Each encounter with these kids is documented in its own short chapter. The book takes place on the five days leading up to a New Year’s Eve party that all the characters have a part in. Much of the book deals with the way rich urban kids end up bored and neglected while their parents are out making more money or off spending it in the Caribbean or Europe. It would have been hard enough to care about these spoiled kids even if McDonell had bothered to develop the characters. And while the conclusion comes quickly, it – and a slapped-on postscript - is so ridiculous that I’m still not sure if it wasn't meant to be satire.

As one of the sixteen year old girls in the book says, Whatev. ( )