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A review by maggiemaggio
Perfectly Good White Boy by Carrie Mesrobian
4.0
4.25 stars
Let's talk about how brilliant Carrie Mesrobian is. She is so brilliant that she wrote a book that features two things I absolutely CANNOT stand and made me love the book! Love! After reading and LOVING Sex & Violence I was so flipping excited when I heard Mesrobian had a new book coming out, but then I read the description and I wasn't sure what exactly the book was about. His girlfriend dumped him. He lives in a crappy rental. He works in a thrift shop. But what's the plot? Well, I should have been worried because, uh-oh, this is a character-driven story. Which are pretty much the bane of my existence because, what's the point? But Carrie Mesrobian absolutely killed it by creating a main character and a world around him that were so interesting and real they were enough to hold my interest despite there not being a really pressing or immediate plot.
The other thing Mesrobian did that normally drives me mad, but, again, worked here, was tell a story that kept a secret for much of it. Sean's father has left and we know pretty early on that his dad has substance abuse problems and that his addiction caused Sean's family to lose their house and devastate his mom. We also know, from pretty much the first few pages, that Sean punched his best friend, something out of character for him, for a reason that had something to do with what his family was going through, but we don't find out until towards the end of the book what exactly happened between Sean and his father. It's not a huge secret in the book, but it is mentioned several times and is obviously something that had a big impact on Sean. The way that Mesrobian tells the story though, and how she created Sean's character, somehow made the secret really work and it didn't feel like it was being lorded over our heads.
Those are the two parts of the story I normally wouldn't like but ended up liking, but this book has so many other strong aspects like the way sex is handled, Sean's family, and the secondary characters. When I first started reading part of me worried that the character of Sean was going to end up being too similar to Evan from Sex & Violence. Both boys spend a lot of time thinking about girls, not always in the most respectful or appropriate way, but then I stepped back and realized that that description probably sums up 99% of teenage boys and also most of the guys I know in their 20s and early 30s. At the beginning of the story Sean meets Hallie Martin (also the name of a girl I went to middle school and high school with and it weirded me out the entire time), a senior girl (Sean is a junior) who takes an interest in Sean and the two start dating and eventually having sex. The sex they had was so honest and real and awkward and sweet and complicated and simple just like, you know, real life. It's also some of the most description and graphic sex I've ever come across in YA, which isn't a bad thing at all, it's done very tastefully, but it still surprised me.
Sean's family was also outstanding. For some reason going into the book I expected Sean to be neglected or to have had a really rough upbringing, but, even with his father's substance abuse problems, that wasn't the case. Sean lives with his mom, a school psychologist who tries really hard to be a part of Sean's life and support him. Along with Sean's grandfather, who's more in the background, but is clearly still important to Sean, he has a really solid foundation at home. Sean also has a somewhat mean older brother, but he still fit really well into the story, as did his fiancee, a really sweet girl who kind of mystifies Sean, but who obviously really cares about Sean.
Besides Sean and his family there's also Neecie, a girl who Sean works with at the thrift shop who becomes close to Sean after Hallie breaks up with him because she's going away to college. Neecie (who is hearing impaired and it was nice to see a character with a disability but not have the story be about the disability) was a great foil for Sean and while there is attraction between them Sean is mostly still hung up on Hallie and Neecie is secretly hooking up with a popular guy they go to school with. Neecie is a pretty central character, but Mesrobian also did a great job with the many secondary characters in the story. From Sean's coworkers and boss to the guy Neecie to hooking up with to Neecie's best friend and little sisters I felt like I knew the characters, big and small, inside and out.
Bottom Line: Perfectly Good White Boy is a character-driven story about a typical middle-America boy that just plain works. Sean was so real, the relationships he had were spot-on, and the rest of the characters were outstanding that the fact that it was a character-driven story and that it kept a secret for much of the book didn't bother me in the slightest. Carrie Mesrobian is seriously a YA master (if you haven't read Sex & Violence you need to do that NOW) and I am so excited to see what she does next.
I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.
Let's talk about how brilliant Carrie Mesrobian is. She is so brilliant that she wrote a book that features two things I absolutely CANNOT stand and made me love the book! Love! After reading and LOVING Sex & Violence I was so flipping excited when I heard Mesrobian had a new book coming out, but then I read the description and I wasn't sure what exactly the book was about. His girlfriend dumped him. He lives in a crappy rental. He works in a thrift shop. But what's the plot? Well, I should have been worried because, uh-oh, this is a character-driven story. Which are pretty much the bane of my existence because, what's the point? But Carrie Mesrobian absolutely killed it by creating a main character and a world around him that were so interesting and real they were enough to hold my interest despite there not being a really pressing or immediate plot.
The other thing Mesrobian did that normally drives me mad, but, again, worked here, was tell a story that kept a secret for much of it. Sean's father has left and we know pretty early on that his dad has substance abuse problems and that his addiction caused Sean's family to lose their house and devastate his mom. We also know, from pretty much the first few pages, that Sean punched his best friend, something out of character for him, for a reason that had something to do with what his family was going through, but we don't find out until towards the end of the book what exactly happened between Sean and his father. It's not a huge secret in the book, but it is mentioned several times and is obviously something that had a big impact on Sean. The way that Mesrobian tells the story though, and how she created Sean's character, somehow made the secret really work and it didn't feel like it was being lorded over our heads.
Those are the two parts of the story I normally wouldn't like but ended up liking, but this book has so many other strong aspects like the way sex is handled, Sean's family, and the secondary characters. When I first started reading part of me worried that the character of Sean was going to end up being too similar to Evan from Sex & Violence. Both boys spend a lot of time thinking about girls, not always in the most respectful or appropriate way, but then I stepped back and realized that that description probably sums up 99% of teenage boys and also most of the guys I know in their 20s and early 30s. At the beginning of the story Sean meets Hallie Martin (also the name of a girl I went to middle school and high school with and it weirded me out the entire time), a senior girl (Sean is a junior) who takes an interest in Sean and the two start dating and eventually having sex. The sex they had was so honest and real and awkward and sweet and complicated and simple just like, you know, real life. It's also some of the most description and graphic sex I've ever come across in YA, which isn't a bad thing at all, it's done very tastefully, but it still surprised me.
Sean's family was also outstanding. For some reason going into the book I expected Sean to be neglected or to have had a really rough upbringing, but, even with his father's substance abuse problems, that wasn't the case. Sean lives with his mom, a school psychologist who tries really hard to be a part of Sean's life and support him. Along with Sean's grandfather, who's more in the background, but is clearly still important to Sean, he has a really solid foundation at home. Sean also has a somewhat mean older brother, but he still fit really well into the story, as did his fiancee, a really sweet girl who kind of mystifies Sean, but who obviously really cares about Sean.
Besides Sean and his family there's also Neecie, a girl who Sean works with at the thrift shop who becomes close to Sean after Hallie breaks up with him because she's going away to college. Neecie (who is hearing impaired and it was nice to see a character with a disability but not have the story be about the disability) was a great foil for Sean and while there is attraction between them Sean is mostly still hung up on Hallie and Neecie is secretly hooking up with a popular guy they go to school with. Neecie is a pretty central character, but Mesrobian also did a great job with the many secondary characters in the story. From Sean's coworkers and boss to the guy Neecie to hooking up with to Neecie's best friend and little sisters I felt like I knew the characters, big and small, inside and out.
Bottom Line: Perfectly Good White Boy is a character-driven story about a typical middle-America boy that just plain works. Sean was so real, the relationships he had were spot-on, and the rest of the characters were outstanding that the fact that it was a character-driven story and that it kept a secret for much of the book didn't bother me in the slightest. Carrie Mesrobian is seriously a YA master (if you haven't read Sex & Violence you need to do that NOW) and I am so excited to see what she does next.
I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.