Adulting 101
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- 5,49 €
Publisher Description
The struggle is real.
Nick Stahlnecker is eighteen and not ready to grow up yet. He has a summer job, a case of existential panic, and a hopeless crush on the unattainable Jai Hazenbrook. Except how do you know that your coworker's unattainable unless you ask to blow him in the porta-potty?
That's probably not what Dad meant when he said Nick should act more like an adult.
Twenty-five-year-old Jai is back in his hometown of Franklin, Ohio, just long enough to earn the money to get the hell out again. His long-term goal of seeing more of the world is worth the short-term pain of living in his mother's basement, but only barely.
Meeting Nick doesn't fit in with Jai's plans at all, but, as Jai soon learns, you don't have to travel halfway around the world to have the adventure of a lifetime.
This is not a summer romance. This is a summer friendship-with-benefits. It's got pizza with disgusting toppings, Netflix and chill, and accidental exhibitionism. That's all. There are no feelings here. None. Shut up.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Henry (Stealing Innocents) brings pure fun and a feel for pop culture fueled young adult insecurities to a coming-of-age comedy of errors full of Netflix, pizza, family warmth, and awkward sex. Recent high school graduate Nick Stahlnecker is fired from his summer job after getting caught in flagrante with hot coworker Jai Hazenbrook. Nick leans heavily on his straight best friend as he navigates his not-a-relationship with 25-year-old Jai; living in his mother's basement in Franklin, Ohio, which he'd previously escaped with bouts of backpacking around the world; and his terror at the prospect of going to college. Though this romance is appropriate for teen readers who are ready for explicit scenes, it falls more into wishful grown-up quasi-nostalgia than young adult writing. The older adults around Jai and Nick aren't happy with their impulsive and uncommunicative behavior, but their responses mostly take the form of gentle teasing, with lots of love and no homophobia. The protagonists struggle a bit with restrictions and embarrassment, but Henry doesn't make Nick and Jai grow up too much to get their happy-for-now ending.
