I really wanted to like this collection. I really did. But every story was about getting high. I guess Franco succeeded in making the reader uncomfortable with some of the stories, mainly the two rape stories. I hated "A Clockwork Orange" and I hated this one, too. I struggled to complete it though it is an easy short read. Were all the teens in Palo Alto like this? There was nothing to relate to even though it is a compilation of stories. ( )

This book has to be a joke. This is a terrible, terrible book.

Two scenarios

A yes-man employee of James Franco had to have told James Franco that he is perfect and would be a great writer and James Franco being a narcissist, decided to go forth with writing a collection of short stories. OR James Franco is playing a joke on everyone and seeing how much people will praise his shitty writing just because he's James Franco.

He writes worse than how I wrote when I was 7. It's embarrassing and frankly I'm embarrassed I even gave this book a go (read to page 50. I would have stopped earlier but I have a rule where I have to read up to page 50 before I declare a book worthless). So let my horrible mistake be a lesson to you all.

I leave with an exact quote from Palo Alto,

"I guess I just wanted to get this octopus of bodies out of the car as soon as possible, but it was also more fun to drive faster, as if we were really having a crazy adventure." ( )

I know, I should totally bag on this collection of stories because they are written by a goofy and famous actor. I personally have no opinion of James Franco, either way. I mean, I thought he was great in Freaks and Geeks back in the early 00's but none of his movies have really done anything for me. Going into this book, I was completely ambivalent.

But, I mean, I should be snarky and take ol' Mr. Franco down a peg or two, right? That's kind of a problem when the stories in this books are actually pretty decent. None of them reach anywhere close to Fitzgerald but who says that everyone needs to aspire to be someone else? These are just simple stories that intertwine together about a dude and his friends in California as they party, drink, fuck, kill things, destroy property, and wonder why life is the way it is. For that, I give it three stars.

"Halloween" opens up the book and it's about a drunk-driver who possibly kills a woman, but does not stop to find out. "Lockheed" is about rivalries coming to a head at a teenage party. "American History" is about mistaken racism. "Killing Animals" is self descriptive and "Emily" is written from the perspective of a young girl head over heels for a sleazy dude. "Camp" is a nostalgic trip about summer and summer camp and crushes and girls. "Chinatown" ends the first part of the book and is a tragic, sometimes surreal tale about a girl who has sex with any and everyone. "April" is simply about unrequited love and "Tar Baby" is about being friends with someone you can't stand, while "I Could Kill Someone" stands as the most disappointing of all the stories; it builds to an unresolved climax that made it feel like an incomplete work. The last story, "Jack-O'" is a throwaway and ends the book on a whimper-not-bang.

It'd be pretty cool to see another offering from the young actor. ( )

For some reason, I've started off the summer reading books about monsters: Alan Moore's From Hell, Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Tampa by Alissa Nutting, and this one, Palo Alto.
Except for Ellis's book, which is hilarious, I'm getting a little tired of reading about the very worst of human nature, whether banal or novel. And Palo Alto offers both, leavened with only merest slivers of humanity.
( )

More irrelevant crap from James Franco. This was a chore to finish and I actually skimmed the last few chapters because I was so bored out of my mind. This collection of stories is so awful that I have a hard time believing the same person wrote Actors Anonymous, a book with much more depth and intriguing experimentation. Each story contains the exact same monotone narrating style, cliche themes, and dull language. At least the film gives the characters some life, who deserve much better than the flatness Franco provides them. I don't think I can even discuss this in a halfway intelligent manner because my perception is too clouded with distaste. ( )