Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Anything but maudlin, and the polar opposite of <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Dawson's Creek–ish sentimentality, Nelson's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Girl: A Novel) latest is an especially mature and incisive look inside the heart of a teenage boy who believes that he might already have seen the best that life and love have to offer. Narrator Max Caldwell makes excellent grades and achieves everything he tries. His college prospects look great; he's even got the perfect girlfriend, Cindy. But something is not right—with the two of them, with himself. The story begins as Max finds himself breaking up with her, before fully realizing that he even wants to ("Even though she was the perfect girl. Even though we were the perfect couple.... I couldn't remember why we were together"). Thus begins an intense journey of self-discovery, told in an achingly honest narrative. His sensitivity to others' feelings, including Cindy's, and his nonjudgmental observations will win over readers. Over the course of his senior year, he grows close to a fellow school newspaper staffer, an environmental activist who conceals her beauty in order to be taken seriously, and he runs from an enthusiastic sophomore who rigs a game of spin-the-bottle to end up with him. Ultimately, though, this is not a book about events or people; it is simply about one person, and how he learns what kind of man he is becoming. Pared down and stripped of any unnecessary trappings or baggage, it is a stark, elegantly expressed journey. Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(June)

ALA Booklist

Readers of Nelson's adult novel Girl (1994) will recognize the premise and setting of his latest effort: a restless Portland, Oregon, teenager at the end of high school struggles through social minefields. In this novel, the narrator is a boy: Max Caldwell, a straight-A student and school-paper editor who breaks up with his longtime girlfriend without really understanding why and then launches into a period of confusion about school and social life. I still have the vague feeling that something really profound happened during that year, says Max, and many readers will come away with the same feeling about the book. Max's voice is detached and not particularly likable, his problems are mundane, and he seems to have grown very little by the novel's end. Even so, there's a refreshing honesty in his averageness and in his bewildered disconnection, particularly when he loses his virginity. High-achieving students may question whether Max's voice and lifestyle really belong to a Yale-bound kid, but many teens will recognize the book's rapid dialogue, school politics, and the young man's wandering, often painful ambivalence.

Horn Book

Max Caldwell, rising senior and editor of the school paper, seems to have it together, but on the inside he's lost. He breaks up with his girlfriend for reasons he can't explain, then comes of age through his first sexual experience (with a stranger) and a drunk driving accident. Max can't articulate his angst (and neither can the author), but the blasé, uninflected voice may find fans among the disaffected.

Kirkus Reviews

Narrator Max Caldwell is editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, and in his account of his last year in high school, his voice sounds appropriately like a journalist. He reports on what he does and who he encounters, leaving it to the reader to piece together why Max is sabotaging his own success. Dropping his "perfect" girlfriend, jeopardizing his closest friendship, and drinking too much are a few of the ways Max copes with his demanding family life and Ivy League goals. Nelson skillfully reveals Max's character and problems in "show-don't-tell" style, painting a convincing portrait of suburban high-school students and their social and sexual concerns. Even secondary characters like Max's younger sister have a realistic complexity. Readers will recognize, if not themselves, fellow students like Max who lose their bearings while trying to fulfill everyone else's expectations. (Fiction. YA)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Max, a senior, makes excellent grades and achieves everything he tries. But something is not right—in his relationship with the "perfect" girlfriend and with himself. In a starred review, <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW called this "an especially mature and incisive look inside the heart of a teenager who believes that he might already have seen the best that life and love have to offer." Ages 14-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Max heads toward his senior year with everything he could ever want: he's been named editor-in-chief of the newspaper and debate-team captain, he has great grades, and a beautiful girlfriend. Life gets a little out of whack when the overachiever breaks up with Cindy for no apparent reason. The taste of freedom is sweet for a while but things get complicated when an overbearing, boy-crazy freshman throws herself at him at a party and conveniently lands a job as columnist on the school paper. Her controversial column, "The New Rules of High School," puts the Owl's popularity over the top, forcing Max into an uncomfortable mentorship. As the year progresses, this relationship improves as other friendships suffer through Max's growing pains. Largely dialogue driven, the story evolves from various characters' interactions and conversations with Max. His younger sister, Drea, is the information maven, not only for her own grade but for the high school as well, and she takes on an amusing role as her brother's romantic advisor. Whether Max is grieving over his breakup or testing the waters of singledom, readers are empathetic to his emotional vulnerability. The novel involves a wide variety of high school types-the punks, nerds, jocks, etc.-and successfully reflects the ambivalence in which they coexist. The teenage voice is dead-on, and Max pulls readers by the hand, right into his world, without missing a beat.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.