yeah, shut up. by Gene KendallMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, boy, what a relief! - it's funny, crack up and laugh out loud funny.
Wonderfully present. The interplay of 'Blood Tournament' and an alert discussion of which music the guys should consider more seriously is an effortless and amazing scene of parallel action, topped off: “Sorry, Aaron, I’d love to debate music with ya, but your little sister just sodomized me and I have to go home now.”
Another huge laugh when Katie is solicited to join the band as a drummer. This guy writes wonderful dialogue, and his exposition is quick, cuts deeply and brightly. Anything can happen now and I'd believe it.
"On a gray, sticky June morning..." Yowsuh! Kendall can write like Fitzgerald, a natural gift for exactly the right tone poem, tossed off as a matter of no particular consequence. Dude gets 5 stars with no courtesy or regret, first and only time someone actually deserves it. Referencing Raymond Chandler made me consider 6 stars. Use your imagination to see six, okay?
Deep into the second act of this excellent drama, I had to acknowledge that Mr. Kendall's command of characterization is a marvel of popular fiction, richly deserving to be far more popular, preferably in hardcover on YA library shelves from coast to coast.
The ending hurt. That's an author's prerogative, no quarrel.
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