Dear Life, You Suck

by Scott Blagden

Overview

Irreverent, foulmouthed seventeen-year-old Cricket is the oldest ward in a Catholic boys’ home in Maine—and his life sucks. With prospects for the future that range from professional fighter to professional drug dealer, he seems doomed to a life of “criminal rapscallinity.” In fact, things look so bleak that Cricket can’t help but wonder if his best option is one final cliff dive into the great unknown. But then Wynona Bidaban steps into his world, and Cricket slowly realizes that maybe, just maybe, life doesn’t totally suck.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544336216
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/03/2015
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Writer Scott Blagden grew up in Foxborough, Massachusetts and has been self-employed in real estate for thirty years. He published Dear Life, You Suck in 2013.
 

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Readers who like male protagonists and gritty, contemporary settings will enjoy this carefully crafted novel."
—VOYA, 3Q 3P J S

Editorial Reviews

"A profane, profound debut. . . . One of the most wrenching and engaging young-adult books to come along in ages."—The Wall Street Journal "This is a truly original work, and fans of Sherman Alexie may find a new favorite in Blagden."
—School Library Journal, starred review
 "Dear story, you rock. . . . All readers will appreciate Cricket's complex, lovable character and the strong adults who nourish it."
—Kirkus

"Through Cricket, Blagden offers a fine masculine viewpoint that expresses the intensity of grief."
—Booklist

"Readers who like male protagonists and gritty, contemporary settings will enjoy this carefully crafted novel."
—VOYA, 3Q 3P J S

"Cricket conveys his damage through a wildly inventive voice; his often profound philosophies and speculations about life, parents, art, sex, and God are couched in energetic (and sometimes shockingly profane) imagery that turn ordinary language into the verbal equivalent of a Chihuly glass sculpture—colorful, twisted, brittle, and arresting."
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Holden Caulfield, meet 2013. With his irreverent, hilarious, and heartbreaking first novel, one thing is clear: Scott Blagden is the real thing."
—Deb Caletti

"Dear Life, You Suck will certainly offend a few and delight thousands. Profane, sacrilegious, and defiant, this debut novels crackles with energy. It has depth and human significance, by which I mean the real stuff of real life."
—Ron Koertge

"Cricket Cherpin is profane, funny, hard, vulnerable, kind, angry. In other words, he's as complex and as unique as you or me. His unusual and realistic voice will grab you from the first page and stay with you long after the last one."
—Francisco X. Stork

"Dear Cricket, you rock!"
—Tim Wynne-Jones

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From the Publisher

Dear story, you rock. Seventeen-year-old Cricket Cherpin (yes, his real name) has lived in a Catholic orphanage in Maine since he was 8 and his little brother died. He has a deep facial scar, the legacy of a prostitute mother and a drug-dealing father, and he hides an even deeper, internal scar through constant fighting and irreverence for authority (he's not afraid to tell it like it is), religion (he hates Jesus), language (f-bombs land) and sex (he thinks about it a lot). Although Cricket is deemed a bully, his punches keep younger boys and school nerds safe. In this debut, his first-person narration, loaded with biting sarcasm and never-ending nicknames for his oppressors, reveals the push and pull of his soul. Cricket loves old movies, feels comfortable with his feminine side and relishes telling stories to the younger orphans, yet emotions surrounding a potential romance, guilt over his brother's death and an uncertain future make him ready to jump off the local cliffs. While a slow build of hints to Cricket's past helps explain his current state, a sudden chain of events forces him to confront his violence, relationships and the direction of his life. Only fellow classic-movie and -television buffs will understand all of the teen's references, but all readers will appreciate Cricket's complex, lovable character and the strong adults who nourish it. (Fiction. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews