The Spectacular Now by: Tim Tharp

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary
Published: November 1, 2008 by: Knopf Books
Pages: 304
Rating: 4/5 stars

Sutter Keeley has always been the life of the party. He's got a beautiful girlfriend, plenty of friends and a whole lot of alcohol. What more could he want? That is, until he wakes up from a drunk drive, on the shy Aimee Finicky's lawn. From there on, Sutter makes it his mission to show Aimee the party life, causing her to let loose and be free. He's not worried for the future. He's only looking on the spectacular now.

This book was a great coming of age novel with an amazing message. The plot was perfectly written, and Tharp had some beautiful writing. I fell in love with the emotion of the book, and the flawed characters. However I did have some problems with the main protagonist.

For starters, I loved the morals of this book. I found it to be extremely relatable for high schoolers, and I think that anyone in this age group should read it. It had some amazing life lessons, that I think people could carry with them for the rest of their lives. If I was an English teacher, I would definitely make my students read this.

The plot of thoroughly interesting and climactic at just the right points. I loved this book because it wasn't cliche at all. It's in a category all on it's own. I didn't find it cheesy or predictable at all, just a lot of twists and some amazing characterisation.

I did have a problem with one of the characters though, and that is Sutter. I found Sutter to be a pretty big jerk, and although he was obviously made to be flawed, I don't think he really changed all that much towards the end. I always found him to be conceited, inconsiderate, and very oblivious. I didn't like how he treated Aimee, like some doll that was just meant to be played with. I would have loved to see him develop more.

But other than that, I did think that this was a great high-school story. It was inspiring and rewarding. A must-read for teenagers.

Have you read The Spectacular Now? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess