Monday, April 27, 2009

Destroy All Cars by Blake Nelson

Borders.com:

James Hoff likes to rant against America's consumerist culture. He also likes to rant against his ex-girlfriend, Sadie, who he feels isn't doing enough to change the world. But just like he can't avoid buying things, he also can't avoid Sadie.

Ok, this book totally rocked my world. I kept cracking up over and over again. I loved being inside of 11th grader James Hoff's world, listening to his rants and watching him pine over several girls. His observations about the world were just too good. This was definitely my kind of book. I felt like I was sort of laughing at how extreme he was but at the same time kind of got him. While he was obviously a lot of talk and not a lot of action I loved where he was coming from and would love to have a friend like that.

While I loved James rants and sort of easier said than done thoughts about the world I could see how he might get on other people's nerves. I really liked the way the book was written, how it was a mix of James rants, journal entries, and conversations with other people. There is an especially insightful essay about nature towards the end of the book which I really liked. I also liked the different relationships he explores with a few girls throughout the book. It was definitely harder for him to be Mr. Tough Guy when he was around Sadie his ex-girlfriend.

It was nice to see how James kind of mellowed out and found a place where he belonged towards the end of the book instead of trying to stand out from everyone as much as he could towards the beginning of the book. I'll definitely be checking out some of author Blake Nelson's other work!

Destroy All Cars is released on May 1st.

4.5/ 5 Stars
ARC received from publisher

14 comments:

  1. I've been seeing this on a number of book blogs recently. I hope to read it soon.

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  2. Sounds good! I linked your review to my list of books to read for my Eco Reading Challenge.

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  3. Anonymous7:55 AM

    The title is definitely catchy.

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  4. Great! Another one to add to my list.

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  5. This books sounds great & the character sounds like so many people i knew in high school haha

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  6. One of the first things I ever wrote was called The Last Car in LA so I will have to buy this book on your rec and also the title alone! :)

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  7. sounds like a good book :)

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  8. This looks like something I'd love! I'm all talk no action too, and I think i could relate to this, being anti car(which is like anti-slave nowadays) etc..
    great review!
    -amy

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  9. Anonymous2:36 PM

    Hey Alea - I'm trying to spread the word about a contest for Silver Phoenix which releases tomorrow!

    http://elloecho.blogspot.com/2009/04/contest-to-win-autographed-copy-of.html

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  10. A Sleeper! I love getting the heads up on a book I haven't heard of!

    Thanks for the great review...
    :D

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  11. Aw, James sounds sweet ^_^
    I haven't heard about this one before ^_^ Thanks!

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  12. This sounds great, adding it to my wish list now. Thanks for the recommendation!

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  13. I saw that you were reading this on Goodreads and thought from the title, meh. But now you make me think I might like it!

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  14. Blake Nelson's been hit-or-miss for me, so I'm glad to hear you liked this one. I liked Rock Star Superstar a lot.

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