You Killed Wesley Payne

At Salt River High, the cliques run the school, and administration is on their payroll. Senior Dalton Rev has transferred to investigate the murder of Wesley Payne, a popular student who, unlike everyone else at Salt River, seemed to have no enemies. In order to solve the case, Dalton pits the two reigning clicks, The Balls and The Caskets, against each other, while soliciting help from unlikely places like Wesley's sister Macy, and the enigmatic Cassiopeia Jones.
Beaudoin's hard boiled prose is reminiscent of pulp fiction authors like Raymond Chandler. This humorous book satirizes fast food restaurants, gothic music and energy drinks, in addition to the social politics of modern high schools. As the plot becomes more and more show more convoluted, Beaudoin exposes the high school environment as a place often lacking rhyme, reason or justice. show less

You Killed Wesley Payne is the first book I’ve read by Sean Beaudoin (and it definitely won’t be the last), so I can’t say whether he is new to the noir game or not. What I do know though is that he’s a natural at it. In short this is the story of 17-year-old Dalton Rev’s work as a private investigator at Salt River High to uncover who killed Wesley Payne. He’s been hired by Wesley’s sister to infiltrate the complex clique system at the school and uncover the secrets that everyone seems to be hiding. In the not-so-short this is one of the most unique books I’ve picked up in years, requiring a Salt River High Clique Chart in the front of the book and a Glossary and Index in the back (far funnier than it may sound) to keep show more track of the convoluted power structure at Salt River High. Beaudoin pushes the boundaries of imagination and wordplay throughout the novel. It’s dark and crazy and should be deeply disturbing but in the end turns out to be hilarious and charming... so long as you can get used to the idea that more than one student is usually armed, anything and anyone (including faculty and the police) can be bought for the right sum, and trusting anyone could get you a knife in the back. But never fear, Dalton Rev is on the case, and he has an agenda of his own.

http://tatalonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-releases-teen-noir-edition.html show less

This is a young adult mystery written in the noir mode. Dalton Rev who idolizes fictional detective Lex Cole has come to Salt River High School to find out who killed Wesley Payne. He finds himself mired in the corruption at the school. The teachers are on the take. The cliques are running the place. No can be trusted and no one can be believed. This is a novel of very dark humor just perfect for someone who loves the work of Raymond Chandler or Quentin Tarantino. It had some great one-liners and descriptions that were very Humphrey Bogart in the Maltese Falcon.

I could recognize how clever the book was but I didn't love it. My sense of humor doesn't slant that way. I thought it was more dumb than funny.

It really must be an internal struggle for YA authors when deciding whether or not to swear (use curse words) in their books. On one hand if you do you risk offending a share of your audience, and potentially limiting readership, but on the other you risk quality of dialogue. Usually YA authors tend to go the cleaner route. Some do it seamlessly, while others truly suffer in readability. Never has this seemed more Apparent than in Beaudoin's You Killed Wesley Payne. Close approximations are used continuously ("shite" and "farck" come to mind), which eventually grated on my nerves and seemed to enjoy doing so.

However, there is more to this book than just foul, errr, appropriate language. I thought the first 20-30 pages of this book were show more awesome, really had me sucked in, and then somewhere it just lost me. I've been trying to pinpoint where, and can't decide on a particular spot. It might be the work as a whole being totally unrealistic that did it. I think kids would want to read a book like this for some sort of connection to their own lives, and their lives at school. I cannot imagine any student feeling much of an affinity to the story. A prevailing theme in the book is the all-invasive high school cliques, and sure every high school has cliques, but not to the strength of Beaudoin's groupings, something that YA readers will identify quickly. Also, the characters are only partially developed, and the parts that are developed are not particularly endearing. And to wrap it all up, the reader discovers at the end that Beaudoin withheld information that the main character knew all along, which really doesn't fit with the narrative format. I felt cheated out of effort and time.

I would be willing to try a second of Beaudoin's books based on the beginning of this one, but will be wiser to heed my feelings of putting it aside after significant signs of disorientation. show less

A very quick review. Yes, there will be grammatical errors. My apologies.
This was an odd read. I found it by turns quite good but then the writing style was so "trying to be noir" that it just kept popping me out of the world. There are some serious issues that are dealt with rather nicely, but the overall tone of the book didn't really grab me. Granted, I'm not a big noir mystery reader, but I found the concepts Beaudoin laid down to make high school a place where everyone had something to hide/something to sell just didn't really work for me. This may sound quite offensive, but his unique, modern take on high school sounded well...like perhaps the author was a bit too out of touch with modern high school to really nail this setting. show more He does come up with some witty turns of phrase, and as I mentioned, he deals with such issues as rough economic times, siblings going off to war, and the true horrors of clique-ishness rather well. It has some great moments and I did laugh out loud a few times. Overall, if you're a teen who likes mystery I would guess you could have some fun with this.

If I can pick on one thing, it's something that has been bothering me in YA novels of late: the references to, and in jokes about, things that I, as a 35 year-old, understand but that no young adult would actually get. One example from this particular book, the author uses the phrase "pulling an INXS" (or something to that effect) to mean suicide by hanging. This is referencing the lead singer hanging himself and I highly doubt anyone under the age of 25 remembers it. If you're writing a book that has teen protagonists that is set in what is supposedly our current time, and you've decided you're going to try and reference pop culture, it's probably best to try and use pop culture references that are referencing events that are popular, you know, now? show less

You Killed Wesley Payne was just too much for me. While in the midst of being surrounded by Beaudoin’s originality and creativity I was lost more than once, and bored a good third of the book. After finishing the book I was a little ticked off. There’s a thin line between a great plot twist and some random bloshite* and Beaudoin tip toes his way back and forth on that line.

You Killed Wesley offers readers some extras: a clique chart and index, a glossary because readers will really need this, and a few original Dalton stories. On screen this is a brilliant idea. On paper the chart is complicated, difficult to follow, with bolded text, bigger bolded text, and lines crisscrossing whichever way. The index was massive blocks of text show more that after two full paragraphs I gave up entirely. The glossary and extra stories I had no qualms with. Those I enjoyed immensely especially with the continuation of Dalton’s side notes and remarks.

With the actual body work of the novel the language is the first thing I picked up on. Some reviewers called it neo-noir. I have no idea what that means and will not pretend otherwise, but as I stated previously, the glossary will help out immensely. Secondly I noticed the lack of authority figures and the amount of violence and corruption there is in the book. Dystopia, anyone, within a high school setting? That’s a new one for me. Continuing through, readers find scenes dealing with relationship issues—parental, siblings, and opposite sex wise. Realistic, almost contemporary fiction? I’m a fan of contemporary. So You Killed Wesley Payne was imaginative, definitely something I haven’t particularly read, with two possible genres that I’ve enjoyed before, with a murder mystery at the forefront; what’s not to love? The answer to that question is the pace. The heavy text, the random dialogue that does not fit, and the slow crawl with no action set the book back so far.

In the end I did not enjoy You Killed Wesley Payne. There is a big audience for the creativity that You Killed Wesley Payne demonstrated, but I am not part of that audience.

*a term originated by Beaudoin show less

I really liked You Killed Wesley Payne. I usually don't really like mystery books, but this book is making me rethink my viewpoint. It was all about an young investigator trying to buy body armor for his military brother. He has done all sorts of cases, but gets the one that could finally get him enough money to get the armor for his brother at Salt River High. This twisted tale of double crosses and secret agents entranced me from start to finish. This is easily one of the best books I have read so far.