Ian Welke

I enjoyed reading this book. Not a "can't put it down" read, but fun.

Having said that, I think the audience who would enjoy this is limited to those who are fondly familiar with Fast Times at Ridgemont High (which by definition also probably limits the audience to mostly Americans). I was in high school when it came out; it was a cult classic of my teenage years. So one of the things I enjoyed in reading through the book was picturing the scenes from the movie. I think without that frame of reference, the story would be less captivating, and the descriptions insufficient to imagine what is happening.

The concept of taking this every day coming of age type story and tacking on a sci-fi horror story as an overlay intrigued me, and it was fun, if a bit silly. Not much character development (again, because we know the characters from the movie), and frankly, the additional characters like Evie's parents are totally flat to me -- which may have been the point? There's not much explanation at all; it mostly feels like the author thought it would be fun to try this out, but didn't really fully develop the sci fi horror bit. Despite that, it was fun to see what would happen next.… (more)