"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Albert Einstein

05 October 2015

Stand-Off


Smith, Andrew. Stand-Off. Simon & Schuster BYR, 2015.

Ryan Dean is in his final year at Pine Mountain, but he finds himself assigned a freshman roommate on the first floor of his dorm. Moreover, his freshman roommate is only twelve years old. Ryan Dean spends most of the year trying to avoid the Abernathy (as he not-so-affectionately names his roommate) and working through his grief over his friend's suicide the year before.

This is a good second installment in the Winger series, and I found myself enjoying it in spite of a very mixed track record with Smith's work. Teens who enjoy books about boarding schools or who have read the first book in this series are likely to enjoy this one. Many of the references in it, however, would be difficult to understand if a person hasn't read the first book in the series.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: porn, alcohol, drugs, references to male genitalia - this book is told from the point of view of a teen boy, so it's not a "clean" book by any definition; Ryan Dean and his girlfriend have sex in the woods
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

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