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What Boys Really Want

by Pete Hautman

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739361,407 (3.43)None
The crumbling friendship between writer Lita and entrepreneurial Adam is compromised by unexpected jealousies over each other's romantic entanglements, stolen blog posts and a premature offer to sell a new self-help book.
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Lita Wold and Adam Merchant have been best friends since kindergarten. Now they are juniors in high school and trying to figure out who they are and how the opposite sex fits into their lives. Lita is trying to fix up her friend Emily with Adam’s friend Steve but Steve likes Blair who LIta thinks is skanky. Then Adam decides to write a book telling girls what boys really want. He begins to search the Internet and finds the relationship blog of a Miz Fitz, unbeknownst to him written by Lita. You see, Lita is an aspiring writer and Adam is definitely not an aspiring writer. You see where this is going. Adam decides he is going to self-publish but needs the money up front to do it, so he begins preselling his book to Lita’s great annoyance. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from the Miz Fitz blog and alternates Adam’s and Lita’s perspective. In inimitable Hautman style, the hijinks ensue to hilarious effect. Some might find Lita’s character to be grating because she is sarcastic, funny, and smart but others might recognize themselves in her. Predictable but fun and funny read. ( )
  Dairyqueen84 | Mar 15, 2022 |
This one was a chore. After having read so many well written, honest, appealing, and interesting Young Adult novels, I was beginning to think that it’s impossible for a novelist with adequate writing skills to produce a bad YA novel. *What Boys Really Want* has proven me wrong.

Defying the old adage, in this case, we really can judge a book by its cover. This cover depicts four presumably teenage girls curiously engrossed in a black book (which cleverly shares the novel’s title) emblazoned with a giant question mark. The cover image implies that the girls simply cannot suppress their curiosity about the true nature of male desire—and this heteronormative, male-centered premise permeates the novel, along with countless other sexist assumptions and stereotypes that motivate the one-dimensional characters. As for the young women who appear on the cover, three of them are (undoubtedly) upper middle class, suburban, privileged, white icons of the dominant culture. They are interchangeable, and any or all of them could easily represent any one of the three primary white female characters in the novel.

One of the young women who appears on the cover is black—but this is quite misleading, since the only person of color who appears in the novel does so briefly, and she spends no amount of time associating with the three white women. Upon encountering her, the female protagonist (Lita) describes her (Chelsea) as follows: “Chelsea had a reputation for saying whatever was on her mind, which was a little scary, but the main reason she scared me was because she was black” (p. 89). And this is just the most obvious of the offensive stereotypes that appear in this book. There’s also Dennis, the young Asian man who is great at math and science but helpless around girls to whom he is attracted. Then there’s Adam, the male protagonist who isn’t very scholarly but gets by on his charm and his wit—and by plagiarizing his best friend’s website, publishing a book, and being offered a publishing contract. Sounds plausible, right?

But even forgiving the book’s reliance on sexist and racist stereotypes, perhaps the most egregious of the book’s flaws is that it is dull. There is nothing original about this insipid, upper middle class suburban tale of goofy teenagers whose primary obsessions are getting rich, buying expensive accessories, and “figuring out” the opposite sex. The novel might hold a small degree of appeal for teens who resemble these forgettable and uninteresting characters, but adolescents who possess any level of literary sophistication will surely dismiss this as not worth their time or energy. ( )
  jimrgill | Feb 11, 2016 |
I kind of wish Hautmann had co-written this book, as he started out to do, because I can't tell the main characters voices apart. Adam sounds like a teen-age boy, but so does Lita. I'm not talking about what they say, but the way they say it. Sometimes I had to go back and check whose chapter I was supposed to be reading. Still it was entertaining. Not Hautmann's best.

I'd give it 4 stars for its clear explanation of plagiarism, though. ( )
  fromthecomfychair | Sep 7, 2013 |
Full review posted on my blog www.jenryland.blogspot.com

This book is a light, enjoyable contemporary read. Chapters alternate between Lita's POV and Adam's. The events in the story are entertaining yet believable. I also highly recommend Hautman's The Big Crunch!
  JenRyland | Mar 30, 2013 |
What Boys Really Want is the perfect book for any girl looking for a realistic romance with some comedy. With multiple love stories going on at once, the reader is sure to never be bored. Although it's easy to get caught up in the drama involving typical high school crushes, hookups, and relationship-- the real problem is between Lita and Adam. They have always been friends. Nothing more. However, once Adam decides he is going to write a book about what boys really want from girls their friendship becomes unstable. It could have something to do with the stress Lita is under from her mother (the semi-famous Amanda Maize), or from the responsibility of her secret blog, or the distraction of the cute grease monkey that lives down the street. Whatever it is, it's not jealousy. This novel will keep you up at night eager for more drama, laughter and tips on what boys really want. ( )
  ahsreads | Jan 11, 2013 |
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The crumbling friendship between writer Lita and entrepreneurial Adam is compromised by unexpected jealousies over each other's romantic entanglements, stolen blog posts and a premature offer to sell a new self-help book.

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