King of the Screwups

Reviewed by coollibrarianchick for TeensReadToo.com

You can't please everybody. I knew that before reading KING OF THE SCREWUPS by K.L Going. Ms.Going, however, is going to please a lot of people with her newest book. I have read her other books and she just has a way of creating an engaging ensemble of characters in each book you read.

I like Liam Geller, the protagonist in this story. He is Mr Popular. You know the type - very good looking, knows how to dress, has his way with the ladies, excels at sports. He is just an average student, though, and this disappoints his father to no end. His father is a CEO of this prestigious company and a member of Mensa, so you can imagine what an embarrassment it must be for him that his son does not take after him. Liam actually takes after his mom, a former runway model. He has a great eye for fashion and this does not sit well with dear old dad. His father absolutely believes that intelligence and discipline is what will get him far in life. Popularity and likeableness in high school will not help in the real world. I beg to differ on that point....

I do not like Allan Geller. Personally, I think he is a horse's ass. The pressure he puts on his son is ridiculous. Working in the school system, I see a lot of fathers like that. Their kids are generally good kids, have potential, but just feel like losers because they are buried under such criticism and feel no love.

This definitely can be considered a coming-of-age story. Liam, throughout this book, discovers who he is and how to make it work. Going seamlessly combines much needed comic moments with some heartbreaking ones. I think the intention of this book was to show that it is okay to not be perfect, but what really came out is how damaging a parent's high and sometimes unrealistic expectations can be on their child.

Now, I am not saying Liam is perfect - he does screw up and does some things that may make parents cringe, but he is not an utter failure at everything. I don't think it was right to get drunk and pretty much have sex on his dad's desk. He was doing what teenagers do, but this last episode was the one that broke the camel's back. This screwup gets him kicked out with a slim chance of ever returning. His father has had enough of him and wants him out of the house.

He has made arrangements for Liam to live with his grandparents, but because they don't care for him too much, Liam makes alternative arrangements to live with his Aunt Pete, which angers his father even more. You see, aunt Pete is a gay glam rock DJ living in a small trailer, not exactly the role model for discipline that his father wants for Liam. It turns out though that "Aunt" Pete and his colorful assortment of friends are better role models for Liam than his dad will ever be by a country mile.

And so begins Liam's new life. Here in Pineville, NY, where nobody knows him, he can reinvent himself. Here he could be a nerd, focus on academics like his father wants, and just become someone that his father is proud of. Once his father sees how much he has changed, he will surely take him back.

The thing is, no matter how hard he tries to be unpopular, people like him anyway. Well, most people like him. The only one that he wants admiration from is a girl that can't stand him - Darleen, the girl next door....

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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Living Up to Expectations

Liam cannot do anything right, never pleasing his very critical father. It nearly brings him down, but an unlikely source of caring for him keeps him from ruin. This book was very good. The story was unique and is sure to touch anyone trying to so hard to please someone for love. The characters are well developed. To see how Liam would end up kept me reading. I am ordering St. Iggy by the same author for my next read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fun read

At first the title threw me off, and I thought this would be a lame book, but my teacher convinced me to give it a read. It was such a fun read! The characters were intresting, and the plotline diffrent. I have never read a book like this before, and i hope i find more like it. I defidently recommend it!

how to undo your popularity

liam geller has always been the most popular boy at school, for practically his whole life. he practically has girls throwing themselves at him, and it does make sense he looks just like his super model mom.

after liam gets drunk and starts messing around with one girl on his fathers desk. he gets thrown out becasuse all he can do is "screw things up".

he is then forced to live with his glam-rock disk jockey and sometimes drag queen auuu-uncle. and liam fillany gets the change to find himself. and figure who is really is, what he wants in life, and to only live up to his own expectations and not his fathers.

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i thought this was an excellent book. it's real andit seems like the charactes are intricately woven into the story line.

it's whateva

The book was pretty good, overall. It had a good story to it and the characters were excellent. It really seemed, though, that story just dragged on and not much happened other than the kid wanting to empress that girl and wanting to go home and please his father. That's all I really saw in the story, honestly.

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