Down and Across

Book 18 of my 2018 Reading Challenge

Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi

Summary (via Goodreads) 
Scott Ferdowsi has a track record of quitting. Writing the Great American Novel? Three chapters. His summer internship? One week. His best friends know exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives, but Scott can hardly commit to a breakfast cereal, let alone a passion.
With college applications looming, Scott's parents pressure him to get serious and settle on a career path like engineering or medicine. Desperate for help, he sneaks off to Washington, DC, to seek guidance from a famous professor who specializes in grit, the psychology of success.
He never expects an adventure to unfold out of what was supposed to be a one-day visit. But that's what Scott gets when he meets Fiora Buchanan, a ballsy college student whose life ambition is to write crossword puzzles. When the bicycle she lends him gets Scott into a high-speed chase, he knows he's in for the ride of his life. Soon, Scott finds himself sneaking into bars, attempting to pick up girls at the National Zoo, and even giving the crossword thing a try--all while opening his eyes to fundamental truths about who he is and who he wants to be.

My Opinion
2 star read which means I didn't like it but it didn't make me angry (1 star reads are so bad or offensive they make me mad).

It had big monologues that authors think angsty teens do for some reason even though nobody talks like that in real life (or maybe people do but they wouldn't have many friends since they don't know how a conversation works).

And stereotype alert, the first gay guy Scott met in D.C. talked with a "delicate lisp" and made a dramatic exit when Scott said he was straight.  Yikes. 

A Few Quotes from the Book
"Most of all, I glared at my mouth [In the mirror]: not just for the fuzzy mustache that was beginning to grow over it, or the squashed M shape of my upper lip - but for the words that slipped out of it. A language I didn't care to speak. Song lyrics I didn't care to sing. Names of exotic food I was too embarrassed to bring to school lunches. Words that held me back from fitting in."

"My dad and I lived in our own fantasy worlds where I'd pretend my failures never existed and he, after some time, believed that I never failed but simply pressed pause. One of our fictions had to be true."