100 Sideways Miles

Starred review from June 16, 2014
Smith dives back into the mind of a teenage boy in a story that’s less brutal or apocalyptic than his recent work (readers who know him from Grasshopper Jungle or Winger may keep waiting for the other shoe to drop), but similarly full of existential questions and sexuality run amok. When 16-year-old Finn Easton was a boy, he and his mother were crushed by a falling dead horse in a freak accident—Finn’s mother died, and he broke his back, leaving him with recurring epileptic episodes and a scar on his back. In the present, Finn is navigating relationships with his father, the author of a cult science-fiction novel; his raunchy best friend Cade; and a new girl in town, Julia. Road-trip shenanigans, condom-purchasing embarrassments, drunken parties, and stumbling attempts at first love all factor into the novel, but amid the loopy escapades, Finn’s musings about the universe’s constant dispersal and recycling of atoms, along with his habit for measuring time in the distance the Earth is forever racing around the sun, provide a memorable perspective on human (in)significance. Ages 12–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
A wickedly witty and offbeat novel involving (among many other things) best friends, first love, classroom behavior outrageous enough to bring about a teacher's aneurysm and a stunningly described shadow-puppet show. Sixteen-year-old Finn Easton has his share of struggles. A bizarre childhood accident killed his mother and left him epileptic. Further, he has spent much of his life living down public assumptions, as his father penned a controversial, well-known science-fiction novel that featured a protagonist also named Finn. However, none of this stops him and his larger-than-life best friend, Cade Hernandez, from participating in wildly funny misdeeds. These include leading a chant of "Oldfucker! Oldfucker!" to welcome the governor, who is cursed with the phonetically similar name Altvatter, at a school assembly and participating in perhaps the most hilarious condom-buying scene ever imagined. Yet the story also offers nuance and depth, including but not limited to Finn's headlong, sweetly real stumble into love with a girl named Julia, vivid descriptions of Southern California canyon country, Finn's touchingly honest, kind relationship with his dad, and his fascinating habit of viewing time in terms of miles rather than minutes. All of this and so many more exquisite details make this a breathtaking read. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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Starred review from July 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Finn Easton has lived his life in the shadow of a book. As a child, Finn was severely injured and his mother killed in a freak accident: a dead horse landed on them when it fell off a truck that was traveling over a bridge. After the accident, his father took many of Finn's unique characteristics (his name, heterochromatic eyes, propensity to measure time in miles traveled by the Earth in orbit, struggle with epilepsy, and a particular scar along his back) and made them into a character in a Robert Heinlein-esque novel, The Lazarus Door. The novel has attained cult status around the world and made Finn's life a nightmare. The only person who treats him as though he is not the character in the book is his best friend, Cade Hernandez, the tobacco-chewing, sex-obsessed, teacher-baiting hero to their classmates, beloved for his pitching skills and his ability to get most people-especially girls-to do whatever he wants. Late in their junior year, Julia Bishop moves in and Finn falls in love. She is creative and funny. When she announces that she is moving back home to Chicago shortly after Finn's birthday, he is heartbroken, but decides to continue with his planned road trip with Cade to Dunston University in Oklahoma, a school they plan to attend unless Cade is drafted by the major leagues or is given an athletic scholarship to another university. The trip is the first time Finn has been out of California or away from home, and Cade helps him cut the cord by throwing away his cell while on the road in Arizona. While driving in a deluge in Oklahoma, they witness an accident and risk their own lives rescuing a little boy, a dog, and a grandfather from a raging river. This will appeal to teens who like novels with a bit of an absurdist edge, such as Libba Bray's Going Bovine (Delacorte, 2009).-Suanne B. Roush, formerly at Osceola High School, Seminole, FL

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Finn Easton lives on the edge of disaster. A dead horse falling from a bridge injured him as a child at the same time that it killed his mother. Also, his writer dad featured not only Finn's name but also his epilepsy in a novel that became a sci-fi cult classic, bringing his son unwanted notoriety. Also, Finn's dog likes to rub up against dead things. Also, lastly, he lives in a California canyon that was the site of dam-break disaster, and during seizures, he sees the ghosts of two girls who died in the flood. Given all this, forging a positive identity seems almost impossible for Finn, especially when he is overshadowed by his best friend Cade, a charismatic jokester. Then Finn meets Julia, a new student from Chicago, and he finds that his oddball idiosyncrasies can be charming. When Julia returns to the Midwest, all seems lost, but a road trip with Cade, a heroic rescue during a flash flood, mistaken identities, and a long detour offer Finn chances to remake himself. Leavened with humor and high-school high jinks, this unpredictable story of love and friendship is close to perfect. This falls on the Winger (2013) side of Smith's oeuvre rather than The Marbury Lens (2010) side, and its offbeat tone will endear it to fans of writers like Libba Bray. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Smith is a slow-but-sure publishing success story, with the recent Winger and Grasshopper Jungle bringing him overdue acclaim. Demand, too, is on the rise.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2014
High schooler Finn Easton has unusual scars on his back. Finn's "emoticons"--so-called because they look like a colon, vertical slash, colon--are the result of a freak accident in which a dead horse fell from an overpass, killing his mother and crushing Finn. Besides the scars, Finn still experiences periodic "blank-outs," or epileptic episodes. But he has a pretty good life otherwise: his novelist father loves him; his best friend, sex-obsessed Cade Hernandez, makes him laugh; and he has recently met Julia, the girl of his dreams. Yet he feels stuck in his father's cult-classic sci-fi novel; after all, it was Finn's scars that gave his father the idea for the book, and one of the main characters is named Finn. After Julia moves away, the crestfallen Finn embarks on a college visit with Cade, a trip that turns the boys into heroes. Finn has a funny, fluid narrative voice, and his banter with Cade is excellent--and often hilariously vulgar (Cade regularly notes the way Finn's scars resemble something sexual; for example: "What flounders look like when they fuck"). If Finn is overly quirky--his way of thinking in distances rather than time is made a bit much of--Smith can be forgiven because his writing is so striking overall. Finn's first kiss with Julia is "a flooding exodus of everything uncontained, all those nouns, articles, verbs, emptying me completely." An unusual and memorable novel. sam bloom

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2015
High schooler Finn survived a freak accident years ago in which a dead horse fell from an overpass, killing his mother. After girl-of-his-dreams Julia moves away, crestfallen Finn embarks on a college visit with his friend Cade, a trip that turns them into heroes. Finn has a funny, fluid narrative voice, and his banter with Cade is excellent--and often hilariously vulgar. Unusual and memorable.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)