Slam
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
THE HILARIOUS COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ABOUT A BOY
'Touching, very funny' Guardian
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'There was this time when everything seemed to have come together. And so obviously it was time to go and screw it all up.'
Sam is sixteen and a skater. Just so there are no terrible misunderstandings: skating = skateboarding. There's no ice. Life is ticking along nicely for Sam; his Mum's got rid of her rubbish boyfriend, he's thinking about college and he's met someone. Alicia.
Then a little accident happens. One with big consequences for someone just finding his way in life. Sam can't run (let alone skate) away from this one. He's a boy facing a man's problems and the question is - has he got what it takes to confront them?
Slam is a novel about a boy who has to grow up in big, big hurry. It is The Catcher in the Rye for the 21st century.
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'Very funny...very real' Daily Telegraph
'Hornby gets his point across with the subtlety and skill of a born novelist who always deserves to be read' Independent
'A moving read for anyone' Elle
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hoult, who played the part of Marcus Brewer in the screen adaptation of Hornby's About a Boy, does a credible job "perhaps too credible "as Sam, the 16-year-old hero of Hornby's first YA novel. His tone is conversational, and he relates Sam's story about inadvertently getting his girlfriend pregnant, with little variation in emphasis: he's the epitome of the cool, unfazed teen even in the face of impending doom. But the combination of Hornby's authentic dialogue and Hoult's convincing reading produces some passages of teenspeak, especially between Sam and girlfriend Alicia " Dunno/ Me neither -type repartee "that is hard-going as entertainment. Hoult adopts a slightly deeper inflection for the part of Tony Hawk, whose poster Sam uses as a sounding board, but, comically, the quintessential California skateboarder speaks his lines (quotes from his autobiography, which Sam has memorized) with a British inflection. Overall, the audio showcases Hornby's skill at getting deeply inside the mind of his character. Sam, the most talkative teen ever to grind a skateboard, says, Listen, I know you don't want to hear about every single little moment and proceeds to recount every single little moment anyway. Ages 12-up. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 8).
