Kamikaze Boys

What a ride!
This was an absolutely fantastic exposé on bullies and the ugly company they keep. This is a book that needs to be read by a lot of people. Bullying is one of the plagues of youth, and unfortunately it makes the transition even into adulthood in some people.

This book is about standing up for your friends. Protecting what is right. Cheering for the underdog. (Yeah, that rang ALL my bells!)

As usual, Mr Bell writes some compelling protags, and I was sucked into the storytelling at once. David, our sweet, nerdy young boy, gets a protector from bullies in the form of one huge, scary and scarred Connor, a couple of years his senior.

How this all builds and just works, you will have to read yourself, but let me tell you it had my show more heart in a twist from the get-go, and it never let me rest until the very end.

Some excerpts? Okay, here:

"David bounced in his seat like a basketball strapped to a kangaroo." How is that for showing, not telling? *gigglesnort* Oh, the language is used in such a delicious way here.

"Someone should establish spas for teenagers where they could get away from their controlling parents or dysfunctional school life for a while." I could not agree more. And I'm so happy Mr Bell defined the 'school' as dysfunctional and the families as 'controlling'. It's such a trope with dysfunctional families, when controlling is what they really are. Top marks.

"...turning the other cheek was likely to get David hit on that side as well." David's thoughts about his father's advice to walk away from fights, and be the bigger person. That is SO much easier from an armchair, daddy dearest.

Too much angst for my poor, fluff-heart, but boy! was this ever a good story. Not much sex, but don't let that scare you away. This is seriously good writing, on the older side of YA, with some sweet sex happening, but not of the erotic kind. It happens because the protags have sex, not because you, the reader, need to read about it. (Did that make any sense?)

Now, to the text itself. I must start with saying that Mr Bell had me already with the dedication
"For Kati, who once saved me from three very nasty bullies, and who has had my back ever since."
There is something so honest about a man remembering a girl who saved him from bullies way back when.

I felt I really got to know these boys, after just a few chapters, and I find I'm still walking around thinking of them now. And I suspect I will keep thinking of them for quite some time.

Well done, Mr Bell. Again. Because what this book has, in spades, is heart.


***
I was NOT asked to read this book by anyone, I paid for it with my own money, as I do for all the books I read, all the music I listen to and the movies I watch show less

(April) Book of the Month



I will confess: I wouldn't have read this book. I barely read the blurb. I thought to myself, Boy with cray cray eyes and scars, haven't I read something like this in a MF version?" I kind of did not want to read this book. I dragged my ass with starting until yesterday. And surprise, surprise I ran through it like it owed me money.

I do not dislike YA, it's not my preference at this point in the reading game. I can't gorge myself on it. Used to with MF YA. After awhile I started noticing a lot of the stories covered a lot of the same basic themes. Kamikaze Boys covered two that I like, nerd-with-the-"bad"good-boy and we're-damaged-and-in-love-sort-of-epic-like (You know the books where the couple does stupid show more shit for one another because they are in twu luv.)

And I can see the appeal for Jay Bell's writing. Even with my gripes with the story, I have to admit when I recognize a good story teller. Kamikaze Boys was a good story, it felt like it was two books bridged together. I'd even recommend it to others to try.

Kamikaze Boys is a love story starring bullied, out teen David. He's being tormented by a bully after high school one day and the rumored crazy, killer teen, Connor comes to David's rescue. Both boys form a friendship at a great pace. They were a little damaged, life was not particularly easy but good kids.

Connor comes the wrong side of the tracks, struggling to make ends meet for his family. David, is a child of divorce living with his father who has really high hopes but doesn't notice his son is being bullied. But their friendship turns to a budding romance, they pulls some pranks, one cuts class...regular high school love crap. The ride is a little bumpy but mostly smooth.

I'm coasting. I'm liking the boys, their relationship. I'm caught up in the smell of teen spirit. I do love the nerd-with-the-"bad"good-boy vibes.

After what I call the sweet spot of 43%, where if the story ended at that point it would have gotten an automatic 4-4.5 stars out of me, it continued.

Around 50%, things aren't looking bad. The boys are in their first love stage and common sense is slowly but surely leaving the building. Common sense ran away, left town without a forwarding address.



The end of the first story happens basically. The second book from WTF-happened-to-the-MCs showed up and it's coming to wreck the joint. Criminal acts happen. Not the boys' fault in the beginning but after the first event...I wondered what happen to the Connor and David from the first bit, then I remember they lost their damn minds. Which brings me to the second theme, the we're-damaged-and-in-love-sort-of-epic-like. This didn't have to happen. But it did because they are young, dumb and in love.



Connor got fucked by legal aid. Even with the other guy's fancy lawyer, it was like reading the slaughtering of a lamb. It's bullshit. And David? I don't understand why he needed to go the facility. He wasn't depressed enough to warrant that drastic reaction from his father (excluding the baseball thing). Maybe if David was slitting his wrists or in catatonic state...something to excuse psychiatric medication to be involved as treatment. (-1 STAR for the second act.)

If only one of those themes were chosen...if only.

So the boys get their HEA.

But.

The epilogue...if it ended with the graduation, I'd have let some of my gripes go. But it carried on...just pissing me off at the couple's choices. Ever heard the saying, "you can't live on love alone"?

It's true.
You can't.
Love sure as shit doesn't pay bills.
That fairy tale-esque ending...only for the story books.

Not only would I like to smack both Connor and David upside their head until the common sense that's been hiding finally frigging kicked the fuck in, I'd like to get the parents in on this mega slap. (-1/2 STAR)

Florida just shouldn't have happened, the second time around. How does everyone go from encouraging David to continue with college to being a bum for a year?

I liked the story, some things just didn't sit right with me but it might work for you. I don't hate it. It's just one of those kind of reads where I question even giving it a rating.

Meh...I might come back and change my rating in the future. Right now, I'm swimming in the more than 3 less than 4 STAR range. Let's say, 3.33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 and call it even. ;)" show less

For most part of the novel I was almost believing this was a sweet romance; not since the main character didn’t make love, they do, even if there are not graphic details, but since it seemed like a fairy tale story, everything and everyone was positive and supporting to the newborn teenager couple, David and Connor.

Sure, Connor comes from the wrong side of the city, but he is basically a good guy, his mother is doing the best to raise his brother and him, and Connor is helping her; Connor’s father is momentarily addicted to pain medication, but as soon as he realizes Connor and his family need him, he is ready to change path and take the right turn. On the other side David had some trouble accepting his parents’s divorce, but now show more that he is living with his father, he has the full support of the man, even when he came out; his father has no issue at all to talk to David about his homosexuality, and actually, to me it seemed that David was the one with some reticence. When David and Connor got together, it’s easy and sweet, and both families support them.

And so, where is the climax? Well, just let say that both David and Connor will do stupid mistakes due to their naiveté and maybe, why not, since they were too much loved. Their world, for how much simple and suburban life, it was a little too perfect, and they were not ready for the real life. They were thinking to start anew, and everything was there for them, waiting to be picked without struggle. That was wrong, in that way, they would have been apart in less than one year. They needed to feel that what they were obtaining was deserved and desired, that they had to fight for it. I think what they went through was a test destiny was making them take, and yes, that was the right thing to do.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1468198149/?tag=elimyrevandra-20 show less

3.5 stars. Both sweet and sad, but I still got my HEA.

Sweet story.Young love. four stars.

3.5 stars

Sweet story.Young love. four stars.