Henrico Youth Book Awards 2014 discussion

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Holden Caulfield may have met his match. This book had an OUTSTANDING narrative voice! Leo is a believable teen male character. I thought the citations were hilarious and realistic. This is a tough read, but a worthwhile one. I came away from it feeling hopeful, and also a little disappointed for Leo that life didn't hand him a better situation. It was honest, heartbreaking, and uplifting. The writing was exquisite. I really would not have taken a word out or moved a sentence around. It is one of the smoothest (like silk on a fresh ice rink) books I have read in a very long time. If Printz was determined solely on writing chops alone, I would lay my money on Quick. Despite being a complete fan of this book, some of the story elements (suicide, sexuality) reminded me a lot of More Than This by Ness; should not have read them back to back because I kept comparing. I would have a difficult time recommending this to some of my teens. Definitely for a more mature reader. But if this book found the right reader, they would never want to put it down.

I listened to the audio book and loved the narrator, who had the perfect sarcastic tone for this book. I agree with Mandy that this book brings Holden Caulfield to mind and I expect this will really resonate with teens. This book deals with sexual abuse better than most of the YA books out there. It manages to be very honest in the descriptions of the abusive relationships, while never being explicit. The build up to Leonard's reveal of his motivation for revenge and destruction is a wonderful trail of snide teen insights and flippant gestures at his teachers and peers to see if anyone notices his spiral down into darkness.

This book really blew me away! I couldn't put it down, even though I was sort of terrified to find out what would come next. Matthew Quick does an amazing job of creating a narrator that you really root for despite the horrible things he is contemplating doing. I absolutely loved the elements of the letters from the future- I think this is an idea that might help a lot of teens that find themselves in overwhelming situations with no end in sight. I also loved that despite many disappointing adults, his teacher really came through for him. It was beautifully written, intense, heart-stopping, bleak and then later hopeful. I appreciated that it gives hope without making light of how serious the situation is.

FMLP feels like a book that could win a lot of critics’/professional awards this year. This novel has an important message, and through Leonard, Quick delivers it in a story that creates real tension and sympathy in the reader. I liked this book, but Leonard’s constant cynicism and negativity wore me down after a while and made me leave this one on the shelf a few times once I had started it. As long as a particular teen reader is not turned off by the tone and can handle the issues involved in the story, I think they would find a novel that makes an impact (even if only slight) on how they think about their classmates.