The Fixes by Owen Matthews

Gut Instinct Rating - 5

Characters - 4

Believability for type and topics - 4

Similarity to other books - 5

Writing Style - 5

Excitement Factor - 5

Story Line - 5

Title Relevance - 5

Dust Jacket Art - 3

To read or not to read? Read this. Now.

Movie? None

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.81. I think it was more deserving of a 4.56.

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Published on August 30, 2016

Pages: 513

Publishing Company: HarperTeen

Number of books by author: 4 Novels

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, GBLT, Romance, Realistic Fiction

This book was extremely exciting. Zoom in to the kid who has no one, and seemingly wants no one. He has no friends, his family is a wreck - inside out, of course. He's a loner. Until Mr. A-List Celebrity walks into his high school and he feels the tingle. He's gay. He's just never outed himself. When he finally gets tired of the pressure from his picture-perfect dad (outside-in), he rebels by hanging out with Mr. A List. And so his troubles begin. Literally, he just keeps getting into trouble. Young love does young and stupid things.

The characters are believable, in general. I don't live in the a-list world, so I don't know if it really is just like this book says it is. But, I have to believe that it mostly is. But, what gets me is how does this relationship really evolve the way it does? I mean, is it really that likely? Maybe it is. I don't know. And would Mr. Perfect really let it slide that far down the totem pole?

It's an incredibly well written book - super fluid, keeping the things that we see everyday at a minimum. We read about the day-to-day life, but how a teenager can combust under pressure is really what we're reading about. It's fast paced, with enough slow spots to keep you from feeling like it's forced; but it's just enough slow to feel like you would feel if you were in the position of these kids (because we do get a bit of perspective from everyone).

The cover was a bit off for me, but otherwise, hands down a great read.