Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford. Hyperion Books. 2009. Audiobook (CD). Read by Nick Podehl. Brilliance Audio. Review copy supplied by Brilliance.
The Plot: Will Carter is starting high school. It's going to be great! He'll get a girlfriend. He'll have sex. Stuttering around pretty girls (especially ones who wear shirts that show their belly buttons) may be a problem. As is his ADD, which leads him to sort of zone out. But with his older sister Lynn making sure he doesn't embarrass her and ruin her high school years he just may survive high school. Or not.
The Good: I listened to this on audio.... I have never laughed so hard. Laughed out loud. A cop followed me for five miles, convinced, I'm sure, that something was wrong with me from the laughing.
Carter, Carter, Carter. I'll admit it; I didn't like the punk at first. I almost took the CD out during the first ten minutes. He was so annoying! Talking like a kid who has watched one too many bad music videos and believed they were real, about his boys, talking about girls like they were objects and not people.
But then... something happened. I laughed at something he did (the dumbass). I cringed as he walked into a situation that I knew would not end well. And I found myself falling in love with Carter. It's a good thing I have a 45 minute commute and kept listening, or I'd have lost out on the funniest book of the year and my Favorite Books of 2009 would be one book less. The narrator, Nick Podehl, is awe-some. His reading is energetic, totally capturing every emotion -- shock, lust, disappointment, excitement, with a reading that is off the wall.
You know Carter. He's like many freshmen boys -- insecure and overconfident, searching, a kid trying to grow up. And so does he do and say stupid things? Like telling one girl he loves her and then moments later asking someone else to a dance? Yes, yes he does. Does he talk as if he truly believed life is like a porno? Well... sometimes. But isn't that what a book is supposed to be about -- growing up? Realizing the truths about people and yourself? What fun would there be if Carter was perfect?
Carter's freshman year is a little bit of everything. He's a jock, on the freshman football team and JV swimming. His ADD makes it hard to concentrate, at times. He has his friends, and he cares what they think, so sometimes just goes along. But one moment he can be obnoxious as hell, and the next so sweet, like when he doesn't make a big deal out of a date throwing up. He's the tough guy who also still cries.
It's funny -- what I kept picturing as I read this book? Dazed & Confused
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By: Lizzy Burns,
on 12/20/2009
Blog: A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Hyperion, Brilliance Audio, favorite books read in 2009, Brent Crawford, fun fun fun, NIck Podehl, romance, humor, audiobooks, Add a tag
Blog: A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Hyperion, Brilliance Audio, favorite books read in 2009, Brent Crawford, fun fun fun, NIck Podehl, romance, humor, audiobooks, Add a tag
3 Comments on Carter Finally Gets It, last added: 12/21/2009
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I don't think I would have picked this one up normally, but because of the humor factor you just described - it's gotta go on the list. Thanks!
I LOVED this one! Brent Crawford is writing a sequel-it'll be out April 2010 I believe. I laughed so hard during this one-I loved the audiobook and was wondering if the humor was there without the narrator, who is fantastic. But even readers who haven't listened to it and read it instead have found this one hysterical too. I gave this one to my freshman brother and he loved it too. It's a good read!
This is another book on my TBR solely because of multiple amazing blog reviews. Thanks for adding yours - I knew it was funny, but had no idea that it was laugh out loud worthy! (And thanks for the heads-up that he might annoy me in the beginning. I have little patience for annoying MCs, but I'll give Carter a chance!)