The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A group of friends embarks on an epic all-day scavenger hunt in the name of eternal small-town glory.
“The writing is crisp, the dialogue spot on, and the hunt entirely twenty-first century.”—The Horn Book
“Funny and nostalgic, a highly contemporary riff on a timeless rite of passage.”—Kirkus Reviews
With only a week until graduation, there’s one last thing Mary and her friends must do together: participate in the Oyster Point High Official Unofficial Senior Week Scavenger Hunt. And Mary is determined to win.
Mary lost her spot at Georgetown to self-professed “it” bully Jake Barbone and she’s not about to lose again. But everyone is racing for the finish line with complicated motives, and the team’s all-night adventure becomes all-night drama as shifting alliances, flared tempers, and crushing crushes take over. As the items and points pile up, Mary and her team must reinvent their strategy—and themselves—in order to win.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A week before graduation, seniors at Oyster Point High compete in an unauthorized scavenger hunt with the prize being custodianship of a garden yeti that they keep for a year. Mary May Gilhooley is intent on breaking out of her good-girl shackles to win, but she has to contend with friction among her teammates, self-dubbed "the Also-Rans": Harvard-bound Patrick, who is head over heels in (unrequited) love with Mary; mysteriously sullen best friend Winter; and barely closeted Dez, who has been picked on for years by a rival team. The objects in the hunt include many straightforward items (one "al dente" strand of spaghetti, a bar of hotel soap) and others that must be puzzled out ("Shave Bob's balls" "Shuck a Mary on the half shell"). It's a terrific premise, and Altebrando (Dreamland Social Club) successfully sustains a sense of tension and excitement throughout. In the final pages, Mary swings a bit unbelievably between acquiescent daughter and win-at-all-costs team leader, but that doesn't diminish the book's smart combination of end-of-high-school poignancy and fun. Ages 14 up.
