I want to listen to this one on audio book SO much. Gratuity and J-Lo go to NewBoovWorld in search of redemption and tourist attractions. They end up in a race for escape against the background of a Boov presidential race. Um, yeah. It's hilarious. Don't try to think about it, just enjoy the show. ( )

This book wasn't as good as The True Meaning of Smekday, but, in all honesty, I'm not sure any sequel could be. That being said, the story of Tip and J.Lo's trip to NewBoovWorld set against the backdrop of Smek being forced to run for President instead of just continuing on as HighBoov was a lot of fun. This time it was Tip learning about a brand new culture and, no surprise, she did great rescuing J.Lo all on her own. The mystery of the mysterious assassin was solved in a, I thought, surprising way, and the comics relating to that were really cool. It's a great followup, enjoy it! (Provided by publisher)
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My neighbor, the gifted writer and all-around great guy, [a:John Claude Bemis|2739770|John Claude Bemis|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1303418092p2/2739770.jpg], kindly offered us the loan of his ARC, since we're had introduced him to [b:The True Meaning of Smekday|1194366|The True Meaning of Smekday|Adam Rex|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409119218s/1194366.jpg|1182420].

***

Many things happen in Smekday, and we're dealing with the repercussions in Smek for President. Tip, her mother, and J.Lo are leading a quiet life in the country, but no one is quiet happy after all the tumult they've been through. So Tip and J.Lo decide to take a little road trip and visit the new Boov world colony. Chaos ensues. There is a wacky political campaign. There's another human kid. Tip and J. Lo get into a great deal of trouble, many silly things happen, and then finally, all is resolved and Tip is grounded like all get-out.

It is all ridiculously fun. I'm sad that the movie based on the first book has the utterly boring name of "Home", but I hope it's worthy of the book, and that it will bring readers to the sequel. The world needs more romps with clever characters. Enjoy.

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Madcap adventure mixed with discussable philosophies. ?áI was not disappointed with this sequel, but neither book is really sticking with me. ?áI'm not at all surprised that the series inspired a movie - they're fairly light that way. ?áStill, I do want to quote a bit:

?áWhen we wants to do something but cannot, that is when we think. When our consciousness awakes up and stretches its arms. That is when we imagine, and plan, and dream about the undone thing. Ignored for too long and not able to show anyBoov his message, Bill developed a bug. Some bad code. A . . .?áglitch."

I felt weird talking about Bill right in front of him like this. After he zoomed up the ramp to the bedroom, I said, "A glitch? Bill can?áthink. Like he's?áalive. He might be as smart as a person--that's not a glitch."

J.Lo gave me a sad look. "Peoples?áare?áglitches," he said.

He returned to his work. "Their worlds do not want them," he continued. "A fox? It knows how to be a fox. Any koobish is the number one expert at being a koobish. But peoples? Boov and humans and Gorg and Habadoo and suchlike? We are the only ones who don't know how to be. Who do not know the right things to do."

In any case, Rex is brilliant, and I will continue to read everything he writes." ( )

3.5 stars. This review is also available on my blog, Read Till Dawn.

This wasn't as good as the first book, featuring a lot more fluff and a lot less message, but I still enjoyed it. Tip is a bit more angsty this time around, but that doesn't take over the plot too much. It was a lot of fun seeing the Boov in their "native" habitat (as it were), and meet more than just J.Lo.

The Boov are simply hilarious, even when they're being serious, and I loved seeing how they lived (in these house/bubble things), communicated with each other (an argument over whether J.Lo will eat the Koobish "now or later" is particularly memorable), and ran their government (I'm pretty sure I couldn't just walk into Obama's reception room and ask for an appointment in the oval office!). The slightly stale feel to the second book doesn't really have too large an effect on the excitement level, and I was still gripped all the way through. It's just that after I put it down, I didn't feel like I had gleaned much from it - except maybe a lesson about mother-daughter relationships, and that honestly felt a little forced.

There's not much more I can say about the book, because it was really just a goofy romp through Smekday. Tip was, as I said above, as awesome a narrator as ever except for when she was getting a little angsty about her mom, J.Lo was still absolutely amazing, and the new characters introduced in this book were pretty awesome as well (although Smek was only awesome as in "awesomely, hilariously bad - in every sense of the word"). Also, the ending made like no sense but it's fine. I'm cool with that. What more could I expect from a universe where there's such a thing as Koobish, edible pets?

So yeah. If you've read the first book, by all means grab a copy of Smek for President. It won't blow your socks off the way The True Meaning of Smekday did, but it sure will make you laugh. ( )