The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

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C.D. Payne, �Revolting Youth�

Started February 18 � Finished February 18, 2003; 280 pages. Posted 26 February 2003

I can�t tell you how long I�ve waited for this book to come into the store. No wait, I can � I�ve been waiting for this book to come into the store ever since it first came out in the year 2000. Seeing the same Sue Grafton novel come in every single day, but never having this book come in is a practice in frustration. Perhaps that�s a cheap shot � after all, I�ve never read any Sue Grafton novels, but I�m betting I can summarize any of them off the top of my head and come pretty damn close.

Alan was always after me to read Youth in Revolt by the same author when we both lived on 13th street. Now, Alan�s a sharp guy, and he has good taste in quirky things, but he also had some quirky penchants for things that are very, very bad, like dancing around in animal skin Speedos, so I kept putting this book off.

Then I went to England and finished every single book I had brought with me. I e-mailed him incessantly, begging him to send me some stuff from home. When the package finally arrived, filled with 20 pounds of books, he slipped his copy of Youth in Revolt in my pile.

Still I put it off. Finally, Mr. Sleepy and I took a trip over to Ireland, and I decided to bring Alan�s suggestion � a book I had never heard about, from an author whom this was his only work. I didn�t have high expectations.

My expectations were off by an English mile. I read Youth in Revolt in a span of exactly 24 hours, in between wandering the bomb-blasted streets of Belfast, riding three trains and drinking more than should be possible.

The book, dealing with a kid infatuated with a girl who plans intricate and complicated schemes to land her, was one of the funniest things I had ever read, and indeed, in the top ten books I�ve read in my life, ever. The only complaint I had was that I was currently infatuated with my own Red Hot Punk Rock Goddess, and I was in the midst of hatching numerous plans to win her over. You can read about that when you buy my book. So the storyline of Payne�s book seemed a little too close to home to me at times. Fortunately, I managed not to burn down half of London, unlike the hero of Payne�s book manages to do with Oakland.

So this is the continuing adventure of all the characters from Payne�s first novel. I�m going to start this out with a default disclaimer � I loved the book. But, like so many other reviews, there is a �but...�; the but in this case is that I�m not sure this book stands on its own merit.

So much happened the first time around that Payne is stuck in the clich�s from Scream 2. Do you remember the rules laid down for a sequel? There must be a higher body count. The events have to be bigger and more shocking then before.

Uh... I don�t remember the rest of the rules, as Scream 2 was a pretty stupid movie.

Anyway, the protagonist, Nick Twisp, does some pretty outrageous things the first time around. So, to up the scale, Payne in this outing goes over the top, and it�s almost a little too much at times.

Second, and this is a personal gripe here, I�m not sure this book can stand on its own. What I mean is, if somebody decided to pick this up and they hadn�t read Youth in Revolt, I think they might find themselves very lost indeed � particularly since his actions are so extreme this time around. It�s easy for me to say the book should stand more on its own merit, especially since I don�t have any suggestions on how to do that without resorting to pages upon pages of back story.

Still though, I only say that for people who haven�t read Youth in Revolt. The book was really funny, though it covers too much familiar ground to break into my top ten list this time. But I need a rating, and so I would say...

Oh, and I nearly forgot. Since I mentioned Alan in this post, I may as well work Joe in also. Joe, I direct you to page 216, on the second paragraph:

�What band is it?� screamed Lana.
�It�s the Ringworms,� shouted Sonya. �God, they�re bad!�

Joe named one of his many bands Ringwurm. Heh.


Rating: Worth used, after buying and reading Youth in Revolt at whatever price you can find it.

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