How To Steal A Car

Kelleigh Monahan is bored; bored with her suburban Minneapolis life of strip malls, country club swimming pools, and her parents’ deteriorating marriage. While hanging out at the mall with her best friend, Jen, a guy drops his keys and Kelleigh picks them up. She and Jen go for a joy ride and she gets an adrenaline rush from the thrill of stealing a car, but not really stealing it. She doesn’t set out to be a car thief; it just kind of unfolds with different reasons for each time she drives someone’s car without their knowledge until she is deeply involved with stealing cars for Deke, a former car thief himself who is on probation. Her second theft was to help Will, the boyfriend that she and Jen share (but not really), get back show more at the class jerk, who spreads the rumor that Will is gay. Kelleigh has two summer assignments: to read a book and then post a review and writing a how-to essay. She chooses Moby Dick and begins writing about “How to Steal a Car.” As the summer progresses she also comes to realizations about her father’s morally ambiguous job as a defense attorney who is currently working to keep a serial rapist out of jail on a technicality. With sardonic, subversive humor, this is vintage Hautman sure to appeal to males as well as females. show less

Reviewed by Lynn Crow for TeensReadToo.com

Kelleigh never meant to become a car thief. She just happened to see a guy drop his keys without noticing one day at the mall, and thought it'd be a thrill to grab them.

With a best friend who's always telling her how boring she is, a defense attorney dad who cares more about getting a serial rapist off the hook than what's going on in his daughter's life, and a "boyfriend" who never makes a move on her, maybe it's not a surprise that Kell decides to take that thrill a little further.

But once she's started, Kell finds that the rush of car-stealing is hard to give up. She starts out small, taking her dad's car for a spin in the middle of the night, sneaking into her neighbor's house with an show more emergency spare key to borrow their ride. But as her parents seem to grow even more distant - from her and from each other - and her friends stay oblivious to the changes taking place inside her, she pushes the risk further and further. And there's no way of knowing how this chase scene will end.

Kell has a distinctive, engaging voice that will pull the reader into the story from the start. Though her behavior may seem bizarre, her reasons are clear enough to be believable and sympathetic. Her sense of humor will bring laughs even as readers cringe at the situations she gets herself into. Her growing disillusionment with her parents and friends is poignant and realistic.

This is a relatively short read, and difficult to put down as you wonder how much trouble Kell will get herself into, and how she'll get out of it. The conclusion is open-ended, which may frustrate some readers, but it feels fitting to her story. A great contemporary read for anyone who loves quirky narrators! show less

I picked up this book because I found the title and cover interesting. There are no chapters, only slight breaks to help with scene changes. It read quickly because the characters are interesting and very easy to relate to. I actually felt like I was there stealing cars along with Kelliegh. Putting the book down was difficult and I finished it easily in an afternoon. This would be a great book for teens who enjoy realistic fiction and are looking for a quick, fun read. The lack of chapters may bother some readers, but I found that it made the book flow smoothly and kept my attention well.

Kelleigh is just your average teenager. Moody, bored with her life, and angry because of situations with the adults in her life, she steals a car. And then another one, and then another one...

Why I picked it up: The setup was kind of extreme - I'm bored, mad, angsty, whatever, so I'll steal a car - and I wanted to see where the author was going with it.

Why I finished it: I wanted to see if she'd get caught.

Who I'd give it to: anyone who wants to see how teens really act, think, and feel today.

Favorite moment: The ending. It's not often that I read a book where there isn't any significant change in the main character and yet I still feel OK with it.

Most annoying thing: There were no chapters in this book! It just kept going on and on. show more There were little break things for changes of scene, but the lack of chapters was crazy-making, so I'm only giving this three stars. show less

Right away How to Steal a Car captivated me with it's sense of humor. The stuff that comes out of Kelleigh's mouth and the thoughts she has can often times be laugh out loud funny. She doesn't really set out or have a reason to steal cars but somehow it just happens and you can't really hate her for it. I feel like we could be friends but I sure wouldn't have gone on a joy ride with her!

Personally my favorite parts of the book were in the first half. When she was just starting to steal cars because she thought she had a reason, or was spending time with her friends or bumming around at home reading Moby Dick.

Towards the end of the book it becomes pretty focused on the car stealing aspect of the story so it begins to lose some of it's show more humor from the beginning and all of the other parts of the story not involving car theft sort of fall away. In that way I was a little disappointed with the second half of the book. The book starts to feel more serious at that point. Also the reason Kelleigh steals cars is never really explained to us or to herself and I guess that's ok, not everything needs an explanation but I sure would have liked one. I guess maybe there wasn't really a reason.

But for me Kelleigh's overall hilarious look at life and her interactions with friends, family and the like win out for me and made this book enjoyable and memorable. show less

Feels like a short story, it doesn't even have chapters. It's a quick and light read (like a snack). It's exciting in a way especially when the lead is stealing a car but what I don't like is her reason behind it. There's no reason at all! At least Deke has one. Kelleigh needs HELP. haha There's even no change in her relationships with other people even though there has been BIG change in herself. She's like a impaired teenager, very dangerous.

Likable protagonist. Made me feel that I was extraordinarily boring as a fifteen year old and also that I should steal a car.