Slam is the story of a 15 year old boy (Sam) who is about to become a father. Sam himself is only 16 years younger than his mother. Nick Hornby has done his usual great job in creating characters who are real, with the relationships among them ringing true.

I liked this book's insight into teen pregnancy from the boy's point of view. And, while Sam's perspective was the main one, Mr. Hornby showed us how Sam's mother worried about history repeating itself, how Sam's girlfriend Alicia struggled to make sense of her relationship with Sam after the baby was born, and how Alicia's parents were supportive, but disappointed in their daughter.

What I didn't like was the plot device of sending Sam into the future periodically during the story. In a book where the characters were so believable, and where the portrayal of real life was a strength, this sci-fi aspect was out of place. ( )

Nick Hornby brings his take to the teen fatherhood story. Being Nick Hornby, we can assume that pop culture will play some unique play in the tale and we also know that our main character will be able to lay bare their mistakes and lessons learned with a certain mix of humor and realism.

For Sam Jones, that pop culture icon is Tony Hawk, the professional skater. We learn that anything written in Tony Hawk's autobiography can be spoken through Sam's poster on the wall. So when Sam has a problem, he simply speaks to his Tony Hawk poster and Tony will lay out gems like, I was an idiot and wanted more freedom. For Sam's mother, it's listing off nearly every celebrity that is older than her, since she was sixteen herself when Sam was born. But it's more than the pop culture...

Hornby manages a look at teen pregnancy from a multitude of angles in Sam and Alicia's story. There's Sam and Alicia's story. There's Sam's story as it relates to being the product of a teen pregnancy and seeing how it's impacted both of his parents over the last sixteen years. There's Alicia's parents and how it impacts them when they view themselves as having done everything right by their child. There's the pervasive presence of the internet and the advice it offers. Even the schools and birthing classes get a turn.

Still, at the core, this is Sam's story. The story of a boy who is very ill-prepared to deal with consequence and how he stumbles through the only way he really knows how. ( )

Very quick read - the thing I liked the most about this book was the perspective it gave - adult topics from a teenager's point of view. Every teenager in the world should read it... ( )

I enjoyed this, thought the subject matter was sensitively handled, and laughed out loud (on a train) in a few places. ( )

Sam is nearly 16 and everything in life is going really well for him. His mom has dumped the boyfriend Sam didn't like; he's learned new, more difficult skating tricks (that's skateboarding, not ice skating--he's a huge Tony Hawk afficiando, even talking to his Hawk poster and having it talk back to him and show him his future); his teachers think he might have college potential; and he's started dating Alicia, a girl he'd thought was way out of his league. As Sam himself says in the novel, when everything's ticking along this well, it's time to go and screw it up. And this generally normal, average kid does that in spectacular, life-changing fashion. He gets his girlfriend pregnant, echoing his mother's worst nightmare for him (she had him while still a teenager as well). This is the story of Sam, how he screwed up, came to grips with his screw-up, and makes a new, unexpected and imperfect but liveable life for himself.

I'm sure there are a load of novels dealing with teenaged pregnancy but Hornby has managed to add a fantastic new one to the mix. With Sam narrating, rather than girlfriend Alicia, the reader gets a much different perspective than usual. How a soon-to-be teenaged father reacts is different than a soon-to-be teenaged mother. We are taken along in Sam's world as he battles the desire to flee without finding out if Alicia is indeed pregnant (well, he does flee but he comes back), as he tries to finish enough schooling to become something, and as he struggles through life with a new baby and a girlfriend he's not sure he wants to be with any longer. As in his novels for adults, Hornby is quite adept in drawing an adolescent boy and all the confronts him in life. Sam is realistic and sympathetic. The other characters make fewer appearances on the page than Sam does and in fact the other characters are fairly few in number. But the focus on Sam works and while this isn't the usual cautionary teen pregnancy tale, there is certainly no glorification, rather a humorous but still difficult realism. I generally tend to like Hornby's non-fiction better than his fiction but I can recommend this one as a well-written and satisfying read for young adult or even adult. ( )