Monday 15 April 2013

Book Review- Swim the Fly by Don Calame


Title: Swim the Fly
 Author: Don Calame
Series:  Swim the Fly #1
Published:  9 May 2011 by Templar
Length:336 pages
Warnings: Sex references, kind of adult things, 13+
Source: Publisher
Summary : Fifteen-year-old Matt Gratton and his two best friends, Coop and Sean, always set themselves a summertime goal. This year's? To see a real-live naked girl for the first time — quite a challenge, given that none of the guys has the nerve to even ask a girl out on a date. But catching a girl in the buff starts to look easy compared to Matt's other summertime aspiration: to swim the 100-yard butterfly (the hardest stroke known to God or man) as a way to impress Kelly West, the sizzling new star of the swim team. In the spirit of Hollywood’s blockbuster comedies, screenwriter-turned-YA-novelist Don Calame unleashes a true ode to the adolescent male: characters who are side-splittingly funny, sometimes crude, yet always full of heart
Review: Each Summer, Matt, Coop and Sean have had a goal. This year, see a naked girl. Then there’s Matt with his own goal-impress Kelly, the girl he wants to date. Method-win at the championships for the 100m butterfly.
About 0.2% of my real life interactions involve teenage boys. It really makes a change reading something from a boy’s point of view, where there isn’t crazy, fantastical things going on.
Matt and Coop and Sam are kind of crazy, in the good way. Their quest leads them to do things that...really aren’t normal (and from me, that’s saying a lot) but are great entertainment. Despite some of them being really really disgusting. I think that teenage boys, or people with stereotypically teenage boys’ humour,   would really enjoy this.
I liked the characters. They’re full of, well. Character, and it’s a good friendship. Matt comes along a bit. Valerie was really sweet. Swim teacher Ulf was my favourite because as wlell as providing hilarity in his treatment of Matt, he also gives him good life lessons with sticking with things and providing space for Matt to develop.
The writing is first person, chatty and honest. I really liked the chapter titles for some reason.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book that wasn’t my thing, but still enjoyable. I’ll read the sequel, Beat the Band, because it seems a little more my thing.

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Thanks for taking time to read this!
Comments are much loved.
Nina xxx

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