How to Win at High School
Author: Owen Matthews
Publication Date: March 3rd 2015
Publisher: Harper Teen
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~
Using Scarface as his guide to life, Adam Higgs is going from zero to high school hero.
Adam Higgs is a loser, and he’s not okay with it.
But starting as a junior in a new high school seems like exactly the right time to change things. He brainstorms with his best friend, Brian: What will it take for him to take over Nixon Collegiate?
Adam searches for the A-listers’ weak spot and strikes gold when he gets queen bee Sara Bryant to pay him for doing her physics homework. One part nerd, two parts badass, Adam ditches his legit job and turns to full-time cheating. His clients? All the Nixon Collegiate gods and goddesses.
But soon his homework business becomes a booze business, which becomes a fake ID business. Adam’s popularity soars as he unlocks high school achievements left and right, from his first kiss to his first rebound hookup. But something else is haunting him—a dark memory from his past, driving him to keep climbing. What is it? And will he go too far?
How to Win at High School’s honest portrayal of high school hierarchy is paired with an adrenaline-charged narrative and an over-the-top story line, creating a book that will appeal to guys, girls, and reluctant readers of every stripe. Adam’s rocket ride to the top of the social order and subsequent flameout is both emotionally resonant and laugh-out-loud funny
Oh, How to Win at High School, should be appropriately
renamed How to Be a Dick in High School. I will keep this unusually short for
my ranting reviews, unlike this book, have you seen how many pages it has? It wouldn't have been so annoying if it had
been productive and given character development, or, you know, actually gave it
some, you know, what's that thing books have? Oh yeah, a story to tell. A plot.
Both were rather none existent.
There are a lot of reasons why this didn't work for me, the
way it was written, the way the perspective was written, next to nothing idea
of what the point of How to Win at High School is, but the two major "de-selling"
points. Here's a story about a girl boy named Lucky Pizza Man.
1. Superficial
I don't mind a little bit of superficial, we're all
superficial at times, we're human. But, this book is superficial to the max, as
in, How to Win at High School is solely about a 'loser' wanting to become
popular. Or if you ask Adam, his rightful place if a popular classmate's
brother hadn't had a hand in his brothers paralysis. That's it. Literally.
It wouldn't have been so bad if...and here's my second
reason.
2. Unlikeable, completely moronic, douche bag (as
Adam repeatedly uses to describe said popular classmate) main character.
You may think I'm being a little harsh, didn't we all want
to be popular? Weren't we all like that in high school? Maybe, sure. We've all
read our fair share of unlikeable MC's, but Adam is a breed of his own. I've
mentioned said classmate who's brother was responsible for Adam's brother,
Sam's paralysis a few times? Well, it's an important part of the story, and
actually, the only important part of the story. Adam's pissed at said
classmate, and I keep calling him said classmate because I honestly can't
remember his name, by association. And I thought, hey, I can work with this, and it was the only time Adam expressed
any emotion than self pity. But of course, he's not pissed because of said
classmates (etc etc), no, he's pissed because said classmates brother took away
Adam's rightful popularity status he would have gotten by basking in Sam's
popularity for being his brother.
Yes, really.
Then How to Win at High School had a random insta-love
romance that made no sense, and unbelievable 'schemes', how anyone 1) didn't
realise who it was and 2) teachers didn't see right through it, is beyond me.
Then shit got really weird with a drugged out threesome, and for YA, I don't
approver, but not for the reason you think. Drugged threesome. Have a threesome all you want, characters, but drugged? Sorry, no. So I was so out of there at 65%, over and out Lucky
Pizza Man.
