NAILED

Sixteen-year-old Bret loves three things: his band, his acting and his funky, free-spirited girlfriend. He despises three other things: his father’s disapproving indifference, the “jockarchy” that rules his school and any possibility of settling for a “normal” life in working-class Flint. From these very familiar materials Jones builds a warm, wise and surprisingly witty tale about heartbreak, honesty and just holding on. Bret’s voice is the magic that makes it all work: fresh, funny and filled with alliteration, allusion and aching self-awareness. For the most part the characters are many-layered and believable, and the frank depiction of sex and violence as teenage commonplaces is graphically honest but never gratuitous. Readers will hurt for Bret when he falls, cheer for him when he triumphs and feel glad for the privilege of getting to know him. (Fiction. YA)