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The lost treasure of the iconic survival horror video game franchise Silent Hill is called Shattered Memories. It's not a game playing by the rules. It's more a an interactive drama, based on a psychotherapy session. In the game, creepy therapist Michael Kaufmann says something very important to his subject: "If you really want to screw someone up, I say send them to high school." Everybody loves to talk about high school, but nobody's ready to asses its effect on one's cognitive development. It's an important part of people's lives and therefore it's important to make it as memorable as one can, HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL by Owen Matthews is a novel about high school that transcends all the art that's being made about this institution. It's something wilder, fiercer and somewhat more real than what's being done today.
Adam Higgs has just transferred schools from Riverside to Nixon. He used to be a stoner, one of these kids wasting is youth getting high, but it's not enough for him anymore. Adam wants to win, to be one of the cool kids everybody looks up to. So Adam take the bull by the horns and begins working on a simple, but brilliant idea: doing the beautiful people's homework...for a fee. Having the cool kids depending on him opens the doors of a new world to Adam, who is not used to be an irreplaceable commodity. He gets what he wants out of it: acknowledgement, respect, a girlfriend even. But it's not enough for Adam, who has a chip on his shoulder about being the outsider to a new school. He doesn't want to be one of them, he wants to be the best of them and he will stop at nothing until his destiny has been fulfilled.
I am notoriously critical of young adult novels. I find that most of them are written by troubled adults for troubled adults, hoping to turn the corner on their unfulfilling teenage years. HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL doesn't fit that mold though. It's something I'd proudly give me teenage son to read. How so? It's not one of these cautionary tales the author wants you to "learn from". The protagonist Adam is tough. Tougher than he seems and most important, tougher than he thinks he is. His devouring need for validation comes from a dark, broken place that'll have him overlook every emotional gain he makes for tangible proofs of success and he's not going to stop because of heartfelt speeches.
The parallel with SCARFACE is really important in HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL. In the novel, Adam and his older brother Sam are fascinated by the movie, but Adam keeps coming back to it as an analogy, whenever he's confronted to the consequences of his reckless climb to the top of the social ladder of Nixon high school. Adam looks for validation through Tony Montana, which is a sneaky realistic detail. Most kids I know, self-included, shaped their personalities in high school from personalities and influences they admired, whether they were real or fictional. Tony Montana being a quintessential one, as well as Tyler Durden from FIGHT CLUB. Author Owen Matthews really nailed the psychology and the social upbringing of an angry and ambitious boy ready, ready to fight the world if need be.
Another standout aspect of HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL is the quirky style that makes it both a user-friendly and frantic reading experience. It's similar to what Don Winslow did with his seminal crime novel SAVAGES: micro-chapters that range from a couple words to a couple pages that keep you frantically turning the pages because it builds compelling, yet incomplete scenes. It's like playing a game with author Owen Matthews. I've read the e-book version of HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL, but I can't imagine how much easier it would be to pick up the book from the shelves and start turning the pages. Before you know it, you're anchored deep into the storyline and you just have to keep turning.
I don't read YA novels all that often and when I do, it's with a confrontational attitude most of the time, but HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL was a fantastic surprise. It sure makes its points about identity and self-esteem, and while it is one of the most epic high school stories you've ever read, the psychological accuracy of an angry young boy's psyche keeps the novel grounded in known territory for whoever reads it. If I enjoyed HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL as much as I did, I think it's fair to say that most readers will. It's a killer story for sure, but it's also a sneaky-good study on the intangible motivations of high achievers. HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL is bound to become one of these source of inspiration for young men who just want to rise above.
The parallel with SCARFACE is really important in HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL. In the novel, Adam and his older brother Sam are fascinated by the movie, but Adam keeps coming back to it as an analogy, whenever he's confronted to the consequences of his reckless climb to the top of the social ladder of Nixon high school. Adam looks for validation through Tony Montana, which is a sneaky realistic detail. Most kids I know, self-included, shaped their personalities in high school from personalities and influences they admired, whether they were real or fictional. Tony Montana being a quintessential one, as well as Tyler Durden from FIGHT CLUB. Author Owen Matthews really nailed the psychology and the social upbringing of an angry and ambitious boy ready, ready to fight the world if need be.
Another standout aspect of HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL is the quirky style that makes it both a user-friendly and frantic reading experience. It's similar to what Don Winslow did with his seminal crime novel SAVAGES: micro-chapters that range from a couple words to a couple pages that keep you frantically turning the pages because it builds compelling, yet incomplete scenes. It's like playing a game with author Owen Matthews. I've read the e-book version of HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL, but I can't imagine how much easier it would be to pick up the book from the shelves and start turning the pages. Before you know it, you're anchored deep into the storyline and you just have to keep turning.
I don't read YA novels all that often and when I do, it's with a confrontational attitude most of the time, but HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL was a fantastic surprise. It sure makes its points about identity and self-esteem, and while it is one of the most epic high school stories you've ever read, the psychological accuracy of an angry young boy's psyche keeps the novel grounded in known territory for whoever reads it. If I enjoyed HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL as much as I did, I think it's fair to say that most readers will. It's a killer story for sure, but it's also a sneaky-good study on the intangible motivations of high achievers. HOW TO WIN AT HIGH SCHOOL is bound to become one of these source of inspiration for young men who just want to rise above.