Spontaneous

by Aaron Starmer

"Aaron Starmer skillfully welds sharp humor, deep loss, and roaring escapades. Truly the smartest and funniest book about spontaneous combustion you will ever read." —John Green, #1 bestselling author of The Fault In Our Stars

A TIME magazine Top 10 YA & Children's Book of 2016!
An ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection

With all the perfectly lovely young adult novels out there, you decided to check this one out? It’s got spontaneously combusting teenagers in it, dude. Not the slow burning type either. We’re talking the randomly exploding variety. Seniors in high school just walking along, heading to class, whistling Beyoncé, when—WA-BAM!— they’re suddenly dripping off the lockers.
 
Is that really something you’re into?
 
Confession: I’m actually kinda into that too. So, now that we’ve established we’re both thoroughly weird and, I assume, thoroughly open-minded, we can give it shot, right? Let’s at least read the opening chapters of this bad-boy and see if it features some of the more intriguing elements such as...
 
-       Exploding teenagers (obviously).
-       Hallucinogenic mushrooms.
-       Pyromaniacal boyfriends.
-       Triplet toddlers in powder blue suits.
-       Amur leopards and doomsday preppers. 
-       A foul-mouthed female POTUS.
-       Ashtanga yoga.
-       ­Youtube sensations.
-       Self-driving Priuses.
-       Rogue FBI agents.
-       Mad scientists.
-       Homecoming.
-       Spring break.
-       Prom.
-       And … Jennifer Lawrence.
 
Notice how I put Jennifer Lawrence last. She’s in the book, so it’s not cheating. And hey, if it takes America’s most beloved movie star to sell this thing, then that’s what it takes.

So, in closing: Jennifer Lawrence.
 
"Wildly inventive." — Entertainment Weekly "Must List"

"This comically surreal novel that will blow your mind.”— People Magazine

★ "A blood-soaked, laugh-filled, tear-drenched, endlessly compelling read." — Kirkus, starred review

★ "A wholly original YA tale of identity, friendship, love, lust, and gory, grisly death." — SLJ, starred review

"Bursting with heartache and gore, Mara’s narration appeals directly to readers’
senses of horror and humor." — Horn Book

• ISBN10: 0525429743
• ISBN13: 9780525429746
• Publish Date: 23 August 2016
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780525429746

Reviews

[Bianca]

— An oddly enjoyable book about high school seniors mysteriously exploding. This was a pretty good read at some parts, but was mostly so-so. I really enjoyed the main character’s voice though.

[Stephanie]

More like 3.5 stars. This wasn't bad, and I definitely laughed at the dark humor (I mean, c'mon, it's teenagers randomly blowing up in the middle of doing quintessential high school things), but I didn't really "get" it. This also suffered from the 'I-definitely-know-this-is-a-dude-writing-a-girl-main-character" POV, which made me head scratch a bit.

[liz089]

DNF 39%
I just don't care, at all. Not about the characters, not about the story line.. Its kind of a weird story that seemed interesting at the beginning, but it isn't. At least, not for me.

[layawaydragon]

WTF?!?!? This was weird. Fake deep, wondering why the hell I read it. Pointless.

Nothings found out, nothing is resolved, nothing happens but a bunch of kids blow up for no reason and the protagonist does drugs and loses her virginity and fucks over her best friend.

And ya'll know me so it's not the drugs, sex, and gore that's a problem. It somehow is mind-numbingly boring, a hipster deepity

At least I finished it....I kept thinking something, anything was going to happen and move forward instead of the rutting around, but nope.

Skip it. Seriously. Waste of time. I'm not even going to properly review it because ugh.

[Sam@WLABB]

I just devoured this book! I loved the snarky narrator, Mara, and how she just shot straight from the hip. Yeah, this narrator was not trying to win over any new friends, she kept it real. I really liked the pacing of the story, which is probably why I was able to just fly through this story. A lot of wit and humor, but also a lot of meaning to green. Great read!

I got sucked in by the John Green quote (whom I love), but this book didn't do it for me.

Original, yes. I can't say I've ever read anything like SPONTANEOUS. The writing is good and very conversational. My only issue with the writing is that despite being told from a girl's POV, it felt like a guy was writing it (if that makes sense. I've read plenty of male authors writing this way, John Green's FIOS for example, that believably pulled off a female POV, but this didn't for me).

It's such a weird idea, kids spontaneously exploding, but the actual narrative here is on the boring side. Mara has a very random way of thinking, and she's prone to tangents and flashbacks that don't do much. The whole book has a meandering feel to it. Pretty much every named character gets a few pages of context and backstory, and considering that there are probably a few dozen (or more) named characters in SPONTANEOUS, it kills what little momentum there was to begin with.

There's a romance of a sort, but like everything else in this book, I was left feeling pretty indifferent by it. Maybe that's my real problem here: I didn't care about Mara or any of the many, many other characters that wandered on or off the page. I didn't find the humor all that humorous either, dark or otherwise. I don't know. The other early reviews are all very positive, so maybe this is just not the book for me. Give it a try if the other reviews intrigue you.