Joe Meno: "Everything is good when your dad bothers to be around."

Hairstyles of the Damned (Amazon) by Joe Meno is a story about wanting to belong. It's narrated by Brian, a teenager at Catholic school who doesn't fit in and never has. His best friend is Gretchen, a girl known for her pink hair and tendency to get into fist fights with other girls. The story is told over the course of a year (October 1990-October 1991), and chronicles everything that Brian has to deal with during that year, including fighting parents, a crush on his best friend, and deciding how he feels about racism. It's pretty much just the story of how one boy grows up.

I really enjoyed this story. It's actually very similar to How I Paid For College (original post), but targeting a different set of people-punk rock kids instead of theater kids. I think that this book was a pretty accurate depiction of what kids go through in order to fit in, and what teenagers deal with in general. Anybody who feels like they don't fit in, or who felt that way in high school should check this book out.

There's no contact information for the author on his website, so no email today. I think next I'm going to read School For Brides by Cheryl Ann Smith, which will be a huge departure from the theme I seem to have lately. I'm kind of looking forward to it!

Marc Acito: "This is how I paid for college. This is how I misspent my youth."

How I Paid For College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater (Amazon) by Marc Acito is a unique coming of age story, set in the eighties, about a boy named Edward Zanni. His dream is to go to Juilliard and become a famous actor. As if typical of a high school theater student, he's fairly eccentric and runs with a very eccentric pack-Paula, a girl with strong morals and shoes that never match, Kelly, his surprisingly preppy girlfriend, Doug, a jock turned theater nerd, Natie, an annoying tag along computer geek, and Ziba, a snobbish girl unfazed by anything. What better group of friends could a person have?

So, overall life is good for Edward Zanni. That is, until his father decides to marry Dagmar, a gold digging, outright evil woman. Then his father suddenly decides that he doesn't want to pay for Juilliard, leaving Edward-about to start his senior year of high school-in quite the lurch. Lucky for him, he has friends willing to do anything to help.

I really enjoyed this book. I think it captured the essence of being a teenager very well. Besides the main plot line, there is also a lot of discussion of sexuality, which is definitely something on the forefront of a lot of teenagers minds. I think that this book is worth a read by almost anybody, parents included. Perhaps especially parents, because the various parent-child relationships throughout the book are something that parents might be able to appreciate from the other side of the fence, so to speak.

The author does not have an email posted on his website, just a twitter account-which looks like it doesn't exist anymore-and a facebook page. However, his website is definitely worth checking out-the About Marc Acito page is fairly humorous-so check it out here!

Tomorrow or the day after, expect a review of Hairstyles of the Damned! If a review isn't posted, an author reply will be.