This book caught and held my attention from page one. The author has an engaging voice that doesn't feel dated despite the fact that this book was written in the 70s. The tone is light and the characters are likeable and well rounded. Adam is the sixteen-year-old son of a famous politician (who is never given a name). He comes to live incognito with his alcoholic grandfather after he gets in trouble (again) for failing school. Brenda Belle is a funny girl who marches to the beat of her own drummer – much to the despair of her prudish mother. The plot... well, the plot is what downgraded my opinion from 4 stars to 2. The story meanders, doesn't make a lot of sense, and provides almost no resolution. Adam and Brenda Belle each have crushes on the popular kids in school and become fake boyfriend and girlfriend in order to... something. Possibly make them jealous? In an unrelated plan, they decide to be nice to people who are lonely or left out, which coincidentally re-opens some sort of secret rift between Adam's grandfather and his crush's father, while at the same time their own friendship is falling apart because they're hiding things from each other. In the end nothing changes. Adam's grades don't improve and he never finds out the big secret. Brenda Belle's mother doesn't understand her any better. They both claim to have discovered something about themselves, but it felt more like everything had reset to how it was in the beginning, ready for Round 2. It was a good try, but ultimately a miss for me.
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2015/03...The back copy of the Lizzie Skurnick reissue of this book totally deceived me. It made it seem like it's a book about a teenage boy, secretly the son of someone famous, who comes to a small town and befriends an outcast girl (maybe she's a lesbian? But probably not) and they're awesome outcasts together, when REALLY what happens is they both use each other to try and further their own popularity. Everyone in this book is a huge jerk, teens and adults alike. I did like how the girl's story ended up, I guess? B/B-.
Do You like book The Son Of Someone Famous (1991)?
