The Haters

YA -- my guilty pleasure. I was ultimately in search of a book for my 14 year-old musically inclined son, but this isn't it. In many ways, I wish it were! It is downright hilarious at times and captures the teen angst (mostly self-directed) perfectly. Wes Doolittle is the narrator (bass guitar) and he and his best friend Corey (drums) are signed up for Bill Garabedian's Jazz Giants of Tomorrow Intensive Summer Workshops. His detached, but insecurity-veiled-as-judgmental tone is spot on as he evaluates the other campers (mostly dudes) and the instructors (looked like they were uncomfortable around kids). His comparisons and analogies had me laughing out loud at some points. Wes and Corey leave jazz camp and its phoniness (echoes of show more Catcher in the Rye with a lot more F-bombs) in short order, mostly because of a girl, Ash Ramos, who is singled out (legitimately) for playing her guitar in the wrong key. But it's worth a protest so the 3 of them go on the lam, leaving their phones behind so they can't be traced and embark on a road-trip, the quintessential coming-of-age undertaking. Ash is loaded (daughter of Brazilian billionaire and former runway model) and she bankrolls the trip. Together they are determined to be a band and get some gigs -- (the first at a Chinese buffet, another in a good Samaritan's back-yard) but needless to say their experimental edgy lyrics and sound don't have mass appeal. Also, their attempts to choose a band name are hilarious and smart as they over-analyze what exactly a band with the name Air Horse (among dozens of suggestions) would look like, play like and age to. Ultimately they decide on The Haters because they hate on everything in their quest for coolness. They are headed further south and the stakes and the potential gigs and outside influences and secondary characters intensify. Meanwhile, both boys have a crush on Ash and she has a Yoko Ono function in the band from time to time. The characters get to know one another better (Ash was pressured to be a tennis star until she bailed for music, Wes is adopted, but benignly neglected, Corey is poor and helicopter-parented) Like "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl," the story itself is solid and has a lot of heart as this passage shows: "It felt like the part of waking up from a dream when you're pretending you don't know yet that it was a dream. Even though you do. Like you know you're really not flying, but you're pretending you don't know just to have a few more minutes of it. And you're pretending the world around you is that same beautiful insane shifting dream place you would never get tired or bored of, and you still have that stupid perfect dream understanding of yourself and everyone and everything. You have that feeling of you'll never feel confused or disappointed again." (314) This refers to their road trip, and booking the ultimate gig, and on a larger scale could refer to the turbulent teen years, maybe in retrospect. But overall, the language, raunchiness and crudeness make the book a little hard to stomach sometimes. There is casual drug use and alcohol abuse and also a loss of virginity, but it's not the implied tender experience like John Green captures in the Fault in Our Stars. Even though I know parts of this would make him laugh, it weirds me out to think of my son reading it, so on hold for awhile longer. show less

from James:

I'm a sucker for novels about dogs and bands, so The Haters immediately appealed to me. The book's tagline sums it up: "A band. A road trip. A gig that maybe doesn't suck." It's a coming-of-age by running away.

Andrews' sophomore title doesn't have the immediate feel of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, but it's still pretty good. It falls into that category of "it must be YA fiction because the main characters are teenagers," but it's probably more suitable for older teens (which means younger teens will read it).

There's a lot of references to music and musicians that will make a great game/playlist for someone to track down (here's a start: http://8tracks.com/anon-247079835/irr-playlist-the-haters-by-jesse-andrews).

4.5 Stars. Definitely didn't like it as much as Me and Earl... But it's still written in that same humor and word vomit that I loved from MAEATDG, so yes!!!!

Wes and Corey are high school kids from Pittsburgh going to jazz camp in New Jersey for 2 weeks. Upon arrival, it's not turning out to be all that great. It's 99.9% boys (really really annoying boys), and after a try-out, they get put in the least talented jazz group.

During a brutal rehearsal, a scene erupts, leaving the pair sticking up for Ash- one of the only girls in the camp. The three feel like outcasts, and after an inspired jam-session, they decide to ditch the camp and go on their own adventure.... a road trip and an impromptu tour!!

My Thoughts:
[b:Me and Earl and the Dying show more Girl|12700353|Me and Earl and the Dying Girl|Jesse Andrews|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337216932s/12700353.jpg|17831620] was one of the funniest books I've read. It was one of those books that captivated me from the first page and had me laughing out loud in public places. To say that I was excited to read another book by Mr. Andrews is a severe understatement. I was DYING to read something else from him!!

First things: The cover!! I love it! It's so simple and eye-catching and cute. I also think the color is good for standing out. I also love a road trip book. This one follows 3 teenagers who form a spontaneous band and go on an unscheduled tour. Basically just driving to random cities and begging people to let them play... even if it's in backyards. There's something so fun about the idea of not having any responsibilities or technology (they turned off their phones). Just driving with friends and making memories without even being aware how awesome these memories are. Just living in the moment.

What I loved: I loved that even though the characters in this book were different from the characters in Me and Earl, the humor was similar. Now, I don't want you thinking that I was LOLing all over the place like I was with Earl. No, this book had it's moments, but I didn't think the humor was as off-the-wall as his first book was. Either that, or I've started to grow immune to immature teenage boy humor.... but I highly doubt that.

The three main characters are very hard to get to know. At first it seems like they all mesh and that they're all just your run-of-the-mill teenagers, but quite soon it's clear that they've got all kind of twisty issues within them. Wes is our main character, and his story-telling abilities are a bit out-there. There's major over-sharing and word vomit going on. But I found that's what is fun about Jesse Andrew's books. His characters over-share. They like to talk about their dicks (this character likes to talk about harming his dick). They like to have freak outs over things that wouldn't bother normal people.

What I didn't love: The humor was not as strong as I had hoped for. The LOL moments were minimal compared to my other experience with this author (although maybe it isn't all that fair to be comparing SO hard). Beyond that, there were some parts that got overly gross for me. And yeah, we get you like to joke about your nether regions, but after a while it's like no more please. Also, it was frustrating to read about people who didn't know what the heck was going on. Were they really a band? Were they any good? Did they suck? Were they friends? More than friends? What was the plan? Was the plan to have no plan? None of them knew. Which is FINE if that's the point... but I don't think it was. I think they wanted to know what they were doing, but could literally just not get it together enough to actually plan. At least that's the what Wes had going on, and he's our narrator, so.....

What I've learned after 2 of Jesse Andrews' books: This author is not going to write characters that you can put in a box with a bow around it. They aren't going to have massive "coming of age" moments and make HUGE realizations about life. They are prickly on the outside and you aren't going to pull back the layers and find that they have this glorious shining heart of gold underneath. That's just NOT what he does. His characters aren't here to teach you lessons, act the way you expect them to, or change. They are who they are, and I kind of love that about them.

OVERALL: I enjoyed this road trip book!! I liked the strong voice, the adventure, and the awkward teenage feel. Not as strong as the author's debut novel, but still worth reading if you liked that book.

My Blog:
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A humorous diversion built around a mostly enjoyable if unlikely road trip. I was left with the feeling that Andrews is maybe skewing a little too much into John Green territory, a la [b:Paper Towns|6442769|Paper Towns|John Green|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349013610s/6442769.jpg|3364505] and [b:An Abundance of Katherines|49750|An Abundance of Katherines|John Green|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1360206426s/49750.jpg|48658].

Not entirely satisfied with the ending and off put by some of the 'dick' jokes and descriptions, I did enjoy this book by the author of Me, Earl and the Dying Girl. There were some original text devices and the characters were sympathetic. A good YA book.

I really enjoyed this book but it contains a lot of swearing ( really does Andrews have to use every swear word known to man on every page), drug use and sex so is for older readers. Its about a guy called Wes and his mate who go to a jazz camp and discover that they aren't very good at the type of music the camp wants them to play. They meet super rich girl Ash who has a car and convinces them to go on a road trip as just the three of them as an unnamed band - basically they will drive until they find somewhere to play. The book then details the antics of the three as travel through the Southern states of the United States.
This is written by the same author as Me, Earl and the dying girl and is quite readable except for the part where show more Wes gets stoned and all his alter egos are talking to each other - I found that excruciating to read and could have been shortened by two pages as we, the readers had got the point right at the very start of these passages. I also found the ending a bit "Meh" but I won't spoil it here. A coming of age book for older readers. show less

Best friends Wes and Corey meet up with rich girl Ash at a jazz camp, which they quickly ditch for a road trip playing gigs wherever they can get them. And since they're a newly formed band with no manager, no experience, and no phones, their few performance venues end up being a Chinese restaurant, a good samaritan's backyard and a dive bar where the bartender suddenly becomes their frontman. Lots of raunchy humor, sex, drugs, and (rock and roll!) music make this quixotic quest for musical greatness a well-paced and highly enjoyable romp that, despite some snarly attitude and over-the-top teen antics, has a heart of gold thanks to first person narrator, Wes.