If you like sex, you might like this book more than I, who does not like sex, did. This is what society tells me teenage boys think like but I always kind of had some hope that they were slightly better than that. I knew some nice ones when I was a teenager, believe it or not, and since I went to Daniel Handler's high school, I'm inclined to think he also knew some. This was thankfully quite short and I was halfway through before I decided I wanted to give up, so I finished it. It got worse. Silly Cole. I did not get the artiness of this. ( )

I just finished reading this book last night so am still processing it. The stream of consciousness style (which can get annoying in some books) really works well for this topic and Handler masters it for his character, Cole. I really like Cole, although he's not presented as a likeable character. I think I have a great deal of empathy for him - he's a young man trying to navigate the stormy landscape of his own hormonal, biological and emotional 'growing up'. And he really learns something at the end. This book is explicit and sometimes raw, but never dishonest. Recommended *honest* reading for young women AND men! ( )

A middle-aged man’s take on what horny 16-year-old boys think like—whether or not that man has been publicly implicated in #metoo—has some inherent issues with unreliable narration. That said, Handler can write very catchily. Cole reads plausibly as a boy who really loves sex and, at the start, is deluding himself about how carefully he has been going about getting it from girls (and it is getting it from, not sharing it with). Then he starts fooling around with his male best friend, who also starts catching feelings—and then he meets A Different Girl. It’s clear that from an outside perspective, she’s not different in any way other than the random ways in which people differ, but that doesn’t matter to Cole, nor does it matter to anybody else in love. I was surprised by how much the ultimate message resonated with me: if you think that you’re having uncomplicated sex (at least as a teenager) then the complication is probably you. ( )

Certainly not for everyone, but I LOVE this book!

This is my choice for the 2018 Read Harder challenge task #15, A one-sitting book ( )

Really gets into a horny seventeen year old's brain. Reviewed on my blog here: http://annabookbel.net/megan-hunter-daniel-handler ( )