Freaked (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: golf ball guy, helicopter girl, takeout box, Peas Passer, Dark Star, Captain Puckwhacker (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's 1993, and there's a lot going wrong in Scotty Loveletter's life. His goldfish has died, his well-known sex-therapist mother is considering posing for Playboy, his stepfather is getting ready to fly the coop and he's stuck at a "last-resort" boarding school. Scotty's one consolation (besides copious amounts of drugs): the music of his idols, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. "I have lived my life according to all the rules of Jerryism. I have shared my women (if my mother counts) and I have shared my wine (sometimes out the car window or all over my shirt and shoes)." When his drug-dealing roommate whisks him and a "townie" classmate away to attend Jerry's Freedom Concert on Long Island, Scotty has little idea of the adventures that are in store, which include being ditched at Grand Central Terminal and getting into the concert without a ticket. Dutton's debut will appeal most to readers who share Scotty's taste in music and recreation. Others may find the rambling narrative, 1990s setting and references, and over-the-top antics hard to get into. Ages 14-up.
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From Booklist

Stuck in an elite Connecticut boys’ boarding school in 1993, sophomore Scotty is struggling and his G.P.A. sucks. The kids call him Loveletter, since his mom is a famous sex therapist who writes about oral and anal sex. The only way Scotty can cope is to smoke more dope and take more drugs, and acid is his bridge over troubled water. His hero is Jerry Garcia, and Scotty takes off with his drug-dealing roommate on a New York trip to a Grateful Dead concert. More situation than story, this debut novel is much too long and repetitive. What is great is the fast, wry first-person commentary, whether about Mom (“I personally would like to see her in an apron, rather than nothing at all”), meaning (“Who really has the luxury of life with a purpose?”), or fighting back (“My survival skills amounted to the fetal position”). As for the acid, the trips are hard and sad. Grades 11-12. --Hazel Rochman

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen; 1 edition (March 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061370797
• ISBN-13: 978-0061370793
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,168,748 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to be a Deadhead to love this book, May 3, 2009

By	Kobi Ledor, MD (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the funniest novel I've read since Boonville, also one of the pithiest. I've only reviewed one other book on Amazon, Lopsided, a similarly hilarious and insightful memoir about surviving breast cancer. Just as you don't have to have breast cancer, or even be interested in such a morose topic, in order to love that book, you need not be a Deadhead to be totally enthralled by this one. Or so I think. Being a Deadhead, I can't know that for a fact, but I'd be willing to bet my ample tie-dye collection on it. Try it. The only time you'll put this book down is when you drop it while falling out of your seat in laughter!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just For Kids, April 21, 2009

By	Ashley Cowger (Athens, OH) - See all my reviews

The Catcher in the Rye meets Freaks and Geeks . . . and they go to a Grateful Dead concert together. This book is funny, powerful, and best of all, real. I WAS Scotty Loveletter once, and no doubt some part of him still lives on inside me.

This book gave me a chance to relive my teen years - and I loved every second of it. By the ending of the novel I was left with a kind of bittersweet sense of loss - knowing I can never go back to those days myself, but content with the knowledge that this book exists and so, in a way, now I can.

I would recommend this book to anyone with a sense of humor and an understanding of how music moves us, shapes our world, pushes us to become something more than who we are. I would have loved a book like this as a teen but I love it, anyway, as an adult and I urge you, no matter who you are, to give yourself a chance to love it, too.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic read for young adults and adults both, April 4, 2009

By	David J. Crouse (Haverhill, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The main character of Scottie is a unique and constantly suprising invention. If you love The Grateful Dead then you'll love this book; however, I'm not much of a fan of the Dead and I STILL loved it--for its language, its wonderfully creative plot, and again, for its incredible main character, whose puzzled meditations on drugs, family, and friendship strike close to the bone.There's humor and insight on every page. Highly recommended for young adults and adults.