The Great American Whatever

by Tim Federle

From the award-winning author of Five, Six, Seven, Nate! and Better Nate Than Ever comes "a Holden Caulfield for a new generation" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry used to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister Annabeth. Of course, that was all before-before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa...and before the car accident that changed everything.

Enter: Geoff, Quinn's best friend who insists it's time that Quinn came out-at least from hibernation. One haircut later, Geoff drags Quinn to his first college party, where instead of nursing his pain, he meets a guy-okay, a hot guy-and falls, hard. What follows is an upside-down week in which Quinn begins imagining his future as a screenplay that might actually have a happily-ever-after ending-if, that is, he can finally step back into the starring role of his own life story.

• ISBN10: 1481404091
• ISBN13: 9781481404099
• Publish Date: 29 March 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[bestmessever]

This little book packs a large punch. I am in awe of the vivid imagery and language throughout this novel. I love the voice of our main character Quinn. The entire time I was reading this book I could truly imagine him sitting in front of me telling me a story about his life. Which oddly enough is how Quinn sees his own life is as a story as another one of his screenplays. I love the fact that he is very much a character that you find yourself empathizing with and I I honeslty feel as though I have been in the depressed state that he finds himself in throughout the novel. I think the way this book deals with hard hitting topics while still not taking itself too seriously is masterfully done and I will now be hunting down all other books that this author does.

[Sam@WLABB]

Another great grief book to add to my list.

Quinn's struggle with coming to terms with the loss of his sister, his friend, his movie making partner was heartbreaking, but I commend his friend for giving him that push to keep living despite his pain. There are some moments that made me cry, but there were so many more, that made me laugh. Federle wrote Quinn with a great sense of humor, and I enjoyed getting to know him and see him make progress towards forgiving himself. I also liked Geoff a lot. He was a good friend, regardless of what was revealed, and I thought he and Quinn had a great dynamic.

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[Stephanie]

The Great American Whatever was...well, whatever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Too many nuances in the character arcs that were glossed over. But the fun meta-like nods to screenwriting helped make this interesting to read.