Review: I'm With Stupid by Geoff Herbach

I'm With Stupid

Author: Geoff Herbach

Publication Date: May 21, 2013

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Genre: Realistic Fiction

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Synopsis:

Felton Reinstein, dork-turned-athlete, must make peace with his father's death and accept his own ability to be brutal like his dad once was. Final chapter in the Stupid Fast series.

My Thoughts: I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book. I didn't realise at first that it was the last book in a series, so I was worried that I wouldn't understand everything that was going on. There was no need for me to worry though. Geoff Herbach does a great job of making sure that you get the information you need from Felton's background so that I didn't feel like I was completely missing out on anything. I still understood the story, which was great.

The story is focused around Felton, who is a star football player who all the colleges want. He is completely being harassed (at least I felt that way) by them all, trying to talk him into attending their school. And to make it worse? He agreed to give his college choice on live TV (which doesn't go as well as it should). So needless to say, Felton is feeling the stress. The poor guy is on the verge of a nervous breakdown for the majority of the book. I was completely prepared for his break at any moment. I expected it.

What really bothered me though? NOBODY really seemed to notice. His life was spiralling, I was worried he would kill himself (suicide is a big theme in the book since his father killed himself when Felton was 5 and another student kills himself). The only people who seemed to notice what was happening were too far away to really do anything but call and Felton could just ignore their calls. His mom had the phone unplugged as well because of all of the people calling the landline leaving nasty messages. His mom was basically completely self absorbed, so I didn't really like her at all.

I guess I basically wished the whole time that someone would notice before things got as bad as they did. He was showing all of these signs and everyone ignored them. Only a teacher kind of noticed, but it was a bit late at that point. I'd like to think that if my kids are ever having a rough time like Felton was, that I'd notice. He was a bomb just waiting to go off and he wanted someone to notice and help him.

Overall the story is quite good. I just got stuck on that one hangup that made me want to strangle all of the other characters and point at Felton and scream at them to help him before something bad happens. It is a quick read as well, the chapters are fairly short, which is something I like depending on the book. This was one of them. I would recommend this book to teens, so they could see that it isn't weak to get help when you need it. That it's a good thing. There is definitely a heavy theme of suicide and teen drinking though, but it shows how you don't need them.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy for review.