Bianca
Written on May 1, 2017
Senior year is supposed to be easy, but for Ryan Dean West, there are no guarantees.
Ryan Dean finds himself as the rugby team's new captain and stand-off - the position once played by his lost friend, Joey. Plus, somehow he's inherited as his roommate Sam Abernathy, a twelve-year-old cooking whiz with extreme claustrophobia and a serious crush on Annie Altman, Ryan Dean's girlfriend.
And Ryan Dean has his own problems, too - he's haunted by things from his past that he can't escape, fear of losing Annie, and the fact that sometimes the uncontrollable force of friendship moves under its own power.
Andrew Smith knew ever since his days as editor of his high school newspaper that he wanted to be a writer. After graduating college, he experimented with journalistic careers - writing for newspapers and radio stations - but found it wasn't the kind of writing he'd dreamed about doing.
- ISBN10 1481418297
- ISBN13 9781481418294
- Publish Date 8 September 2015
- Publish Status Active
- Publisher Simon & Schuster
- Imprint Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 416
- Language English
Reviews
Sam@WLABB
Written on Apr 19, 2017
This one didn't hit me the way Winger did, but I was happy to be back in Ryan Dean's world.
Stand-Off chronicles Ryan Dean's senior year at Pine Mountain. He is back, but still not fully recovered from his best friend's death. The grief he is carrying around, and denying, is affecting his relationships. To make matters worse, he is charged with acting as a mentor to a 12 year old freshman (sound familiar?) and being captain of the rugby team. It seems many people are relying on Ryan Dean to lead, when he is sort of falling apart.
This was quite a journey. I was happy that there were still some glimmers of the things I loved about Ryan Dean, but I guess I couldn't expect him to return to PM as the same person he was before. He was older, and had been through a traumatic experience which left scars. His healing process was slow, mostly because he would not confront the issue. Slowly but surely, he got back his groove.
Every time RD and Annie were together I was all heart-eyes. I seriously love these two together. Annie is just all sorts of beautiful, inside and out, and she had a great relationship with Ryan Dean. She knows when to give in and she knows when to challenge him. They speak candidly and often. She was his saving grace, and often, his voice of reason. And thank you, Andrew Smith, for that wonderful ending. Smith gave me enough closure, that I can feel secure about Ryan Dean's future.
Once again, Smith delivered a humorous and heartfelt year in the life of a boy who is a work in progress, who makes mistakes, but eventually comes out better for it.