First off, I challenge anyone to actually remember that title with complete accuracy in two hours. The Boy Who Never Slept and Couldn’t Want…No, The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Sleep and Had to…Shit! But to be honest, I think the title works because it does tell you just a little something about the book. Plus, it beats the shit out of the other book I have checked out: Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty: Poems. What the fuck does that even mean? I like poems as much, actually more than the next man, but it makes it an awfully hard pursuit to defend when you do something insane like that.
This was also an early review copy, like the Rob Sheffield book. Unfortunately I got it about, hmmm, eight months after the book was released. So the bloom was off the rose as they say, and the rose was crushed into a million shards that were used to compare smells with old lady perfumes they were selling at Walgreens. They don’t usually say that last part, but it’s implied.
This book follows two kids. Nerd kids. And something this book does well is write nerds who are nerds. They aren’t hot nerds who take their glasses off and turn into hot babes like Zach Ephron, Taylor Lautner, or…some chick with brown hair. The main character has the self-described “worst torso for miles.” At the same time, in realistic nerd fashion, these nerds are not happy that they aren’t popular, but they don’t pursue popularity with a vengeance either. The book isn’t about that aspect of nerdidity, which is fantastic because we’ve all read/watched nerds turn into not nerds, get a hot girl, find out that being nerdy is actually really great, or learn some other life lesson that is easily won and wholly untrue. Because, and I speak with experience here, no matter how many Tommy Hilfiger shirts you buy, the back they are draped over is still concave, pale, and covered in acne.
The book also narrowly avoids the classic plotline wherein Nerd A starts getting popular, leaves Nerd B, and then we have conflict. At one point it looks like that’s where it’s headed, but don’t worry. It goes somewhere else quickly.
Ultimately, the book is written from the perspective of a nerd, but what makes him an interesting an readable character is that he in an unapologetic nerd. He doesn’t waste a lot of time explaining the broad strokes of Star Wars and Tolkein and the design of mechs. He gives you enough to hold onto if need be, but the book really feels like it’s written for people who have been there, and it’s this appeal that really pull the book together.
If you like teen comedy, maybe especially ones that are just a little different and throw in a little sci-fi, this one beats the shit out of the next Judd Apatow movie, whatever the hell that ends up being.
Hey! Check out some hilarious comics over at The Perry Bible Fellowship.
