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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