Youth in Revolt

 Book 73 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from September 21 - October 9

Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne

published 1995

Summary (via Goodreads)

Youth in Revolt is the journals of Nick Twisp, California's most precocious diarist, whose ongoing struggles to make sense out of high school, deal with his divorced parents, and lose his virginity result in his transformation from an unassuming fourteen-year-old to a modern youth in open revolt. 

As his family splinters, worlds collide, and the police block all routes out of town, Nick must cope with economic deprivation, homelessness, the gulag of the public schools, a competitive Type-A father, murderous canines (in triplicate), and an inconvenient hair trigger on his erectile response—all while vying ardently for the affections of the beauteous Sheeni Saunders, teenage goddess and ultimate intellectual goad.

My Opinion

1 star

*I always write and publish my review first so it's solely my opinion and then I go to Goodreads and read other reviews for different perspectives.  However, I had a little cheat when I went to Goodreads for the summary of the book and saw this book has a 4.06 rating.  I can't wait to go back and see what other people had to say because apparently I'm in the minority with my 1 star rating.

No.  During the first half of the book I was questioning if I actually hated the book or if I just hated the characters because they're so unlikable.  The answer is I hated the book.  But by that point I was already 300 pages deep into a 500 page book and I needed to finish it, both to see if there would be resolution (there wasn't) and to get credit for the pages I'd already invested.

There were felony-level catastrophic events impacting multiple people that had zero consequences.  I was waiting for redemption or remorse or even a sociopathic "recognition of hurt but don't care" but none of those things happened.  He just hid until everything worked out for him.  Gross.  And you can be selfish without being mean, especially to "friends".  Yuck.

Something I did find interesting is that even though this book was written in the 90's, it didn't feel dated.  Other than the collect calls and the lack of technology which would've made hiding much more difficult in current times, the emotions (or lack thereof) and priorities of teen boys still felt relevant.