Author: Geoff Herbach
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Page: 311
Summary from Goodreads:
I, Felton Reinstein, am Stupid Fast. Seriously. The upper classmen used to call me Squirrel Nut, because I was little and jumpy. Then, during sophomore year, I got tall and huge and so fast the gym teachers in their tight shorts fell all over themselves. During summer, three things happened all at once. First, the pee-smelling jocks in my grade got me to work out for football, even though I had no intention of playing. Second, on my paper route the most beautiful girl I have ever seen moved in and played piano at 6 a.m. Third, my mom, who never drinks, had some wine, slept in her car, stopped weeding the garden, then took my TV and put it in her room and decided she wouldn’t get out of bed.
Listen, I have not had much success in my life. But suddenly I’m riding around in a jock’s pick-up truck? Suddenly I’m invited to go on walks with beautiful girls? So, it’s understandable that when my little brother stopped playing piano and began to dress like a pirate I didn’t pay much attention. That I didn’t want to deal with my mom coming apart.
Review:
This book is fast paced and the summary didn't do it much justice. Stupid fast is written in a boy's point of view whom I assume just undergo puberty. The way it is written, I think I'm either reading a 15-year old's diary which he wrote everyday before bed or I'm accessing a boy's thoughts. Either way is fine.
I think his household is whack. His mother had him when she was 19 and hide him from the real truth about his father. His mother made him believed that his father is the opposite of what he really is. He accepted all those lies because he did not get the chance to know his father. Why? His father committed suicide when he was five and he was the one who found him hanging from the ceiling. Still, his mother believed that they had a pretty complete loving family.
I symphatise with Felton because he was bullied in school and had to live with the assumption that he's no better than anyone. His best friends are jerks and one of them had to go and live with his grandmother. His other best friend ditched him.
The day his mother finally lose it was when he started playing football. Puberty had made him taller, lifting weights and training made him buffer. Suddenly, he was the spitting image of his father. Throughout the book, it discussed on how his day has gone, how he cope (or not cope actually) with his life and handle the thought of a girl fancying him. It's quite hilarious seeing how he handled his new friends and his inner voice that prevent him from strangling those annoying people.
Felton believes that he's a retard. I think he's just a typical boy who actually haven't recovered from the incident. Add in a hippie mum, a piano-genius brother and bullies in a small town, there you have it, a kid who feels scrawny even when he outgrown his tiny shell.
Stupid Fast makes you think about why people enjoy sports in general. You don't necessarily have to enjoy sport to like this book though. What makes me happy was everything was resolved. He became happier, got new friends, a girlfriend, a better relationship with his brother and his mother's getting help for depression.
All in all, it's a good read which can be devoured in one sitting. The plot is not that hard to follow and uses simple words so you don't have to think much. :)
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