Customer Reviews

The Loser's Guide to Life and Love: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At Ed's summer job at a Reel Life Movies, he is required to wear a very odd-looking uniform and a name tag displaying an incorrect name, Sergio. But things aren't as bad as they could be. He gets to hand out with his two best friends, Scout and Quark, and a very beautiful girl named Ellie might be interested in him. The only problems are that Ellie thinks Ed is a Brazilian guy named Sergio, Scout likes Ed, and Quark likes Scout. It's a complicated love tangle that will test friendships and loyalties.

The Loser's Guide to Life and Love was quite a hilarious novel that I truly enjoyed. It was really funny watching Ed get caught in his lies and Quarks social ineptness. All the characters are lovable, even the intimidating Ali who owns Reel Life Movies. But what I liked best about the characters, especially Ed/Sergio was how they knew they had to work things out and do the right thing. In a way, it made the story unrealistic, but it provided for a much happier ending.

The Loser's Guide to Life and Love is based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I appreciated because I love Shakespeare. I also liked the abundance of allusions to various movies as well as novels. I thought it was funny how certain characters started out liking the wrong person only to then start liking the right one, but it made the ending fun and happy.

Ed, alias Sergio, creates a problem when he lets the beautiful Ellie believe that he is indeed the Sergio on his name tag that his strangely powerful boss, Ali, has given him at Reel Life Movies. With the new name, and a ten-word Portuguese vocabulary, he becomes Brazilian and taller! Or so it seems. His intensely awkward friend, Quark, meanwhile, falls for his best female friend, Scout. There is a light magic at work as in Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, only here the fairies are dragonflies that flit lightly through the story. The resolution takes place not at a court in Athens, but at a party in a house covered in colorful tiles across the street from the Salt Lake Cemetary. It's the stuff dreams are made of, a book about summer love for summer.

I bought this book then had a wonderful two days of
neglecting every thing I could to read it. After finishing, I couldn't stop thinking about it. What a smart book with great characters.

Ed McIff works at Reel Life Movies where he has to dress in frilly shirts and wear a name tag that doesn't even say his own name, but that of Sergio.

Often, to pass the time, Ed and his best friend, Scout, like to imagine who the mysterious "Sergio" really is. One day, when a beautiful girl comes in named Ellie, Ed pretends to not be his loser-self, but the super-cool and suave Brazilian Sergio.

While pursuing Ellie, Ed finds that he actually has feelings for his longtime best friend, Scout. But the only problem is that Ed's other best friend, Quark, also wants to be with Scout. What will happen when Ellie finds out that Ed is really Sergio? What will happen when Quark and Ed battle for the same girl? What will come of this complicated love square?

Cannon creates truly entertaining characters in this very fast-paced story about a teenage boy finding out who he is and what he wants. While the story is somewhat clichéd, the reader is sure to be entranced by this romantic comedy.

The main character of Ed is hilarious in a dorky way that makes him the favorite of any reader. Overall, this book is a great read for teen readers wanting a little Days of Our Lives mixed with Boy Meets World.

Reviewed by: Steph

3.5/5
The synopsis of this book makes it seem like it's all about Ed, but it's not. It's also in Scout's point of view, and has some little bits in Quark and Ellie's point of view. I really liked how it was done.
The book's about Ed, who wears a name tag that says Sergio at a movie store, and he works with Scout, his best friend. And his other best friend is Quark. And then Ellie comes to town for the summer, and she thinks his name is Sergio, and he thinks she's beautiful.
First, Ed. Ed is alright. He's a bit self-centered, and while very funny, patronizes Quark too much for my liking. And he's very oblivious to Scout throughout a bit of the book, but not too much. But he lies to Ellie, and that's not cool. But, like I said, he's funny, and he feels bad about it, and tries to fix things. He also wants to make movies, and he thinks up movie scenes several times throughout the book, and while not hilarious, they are entertaining.
Scout, who's name is actually Aurora Aurelia Arrington, is his best friend. She's a tomboy, and has always been one of the guys, but she's also a closet romantic. She likes 'screwball comedies', and she is embarrassed about reading Regency romance novels. And while wanting to hate Ellie, she can't. I actually liked her point of view a bit more than Ed's.
Ellie is staying with her aunt and her husband for the summer, to work with a voice coach, and to try and get over her ex-boyfriend, who cheated on her. We get letters in her point of view, letter that she sends to her mother and grandmother back home, and letters that she wants to send to the college boy who cheated on her. She's hurt, but she's still very sweet, to Ed and to Scout.
And, Quark. His name is actually Quentin Andrews O'Rourke, but is called Quark for short. He studies the moon, and the sky, and researches things, and is awkward and smart and tall. And when he decides he's fallen in love, he reads three romance novels for research. He's very quirky, and a bit adorable. And he's one of Ed's best friends, and they are close, but they still fight at times. (Boys are so weird.) And Ed especially gets on his nerves at times, which I understand, and Quark is even a little awesome at one point in the book about it.
Also, all of their families are cool, but we get the most time with Ed's. His little sister insults him almost every time she sees him, and his mom makes lots of jokes, all in good fun. Quark's dad seemed nice, as did Scout's mom, and Ellie's aunt and her husband. And the movie store that Ed and Scout work is pretty cool. They were awesome outfits, and work with T. Monroe, who is full of worry, and Ali, their boss.
I liked how the book is put together. There are chapters for Ed, and Scout, and lab entries for Quark, and e-mails/letters for Ellie, and it's also separated by days, from June 12th to the 22nd. And when in the chapters for Ed and Scout, it's a little like diary entries, because they are told as the characters are thinking over the events later, and there are points when they ask rhetorical questions, like to an audience. While the questions bothered me a little, I still liked it for the most part.
The book isn't very long, either, so it moves along at a steady pace. Meaning you don't have to wait till the end of the book for all of the action, although the ending is pretty satisfying. While the swoon wasn't amazingly high, that didn't bother me too much. And, besides the characters, the comedy aspect definitely kept me interested. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, and how much different it was than I thought it would be. I was expecting more of an average, boy comedy book, but it had more variety, and while some things were obvious, it was still really good.

Ordinary, boring Ed McIff lives an ordinary, boring life in Salt Lake City. When he's not visualizing his life as a screenplay (don't laugh, he plans to be the next Spielberg), Ed spends his time hanging out with his superbrain neighbor, Quark, or his best friend, Scout.

Ed and Scout both work nights at Reel Life Movies, where Ed has so little pull he can't even get a name tag with his own name on it. He and Scout like to joke about the real `Sergio' and the things he must have done before he worked at Reel Life.

One evening, Ellie Fenn walks into Reel Life and Ed knows right away that she's the girl of his dreams. The problem is, a girl like Ellie would never look twice at Ed McIff. But maybe, just maybe Sergio can woo Ellie. Meanwhile, Scout struggles to keep her own tender feelings for Ed a secret and logical, scientific Quark falls head over heels in love with Scout.

Told in four alternating voices, this modern take on A Midsummer Night's Dream has its fair share of romantic hijinks and misplaced affection. Funny and sweet, The Loser's Guide is more fun to read than, well than Shakespeare!

Quark is in love with Scout. Scout is in love with Ed. Ed is in love with Ellie, who thinks his name is Sergio. Wait . . . what?

Self-professed "loser" Ed works at a video rental store with his best friend Scout. Their boss isn't sure that Ed is going to make the cut yet, so he hasn't made him a new nametag, and so Ed has to wear a tag that reads Sergio. Who is the mysterious Sergio? No one seems to know. All Ed knows is that the night he decides to slick his hair back and become more exotic, more Sergio-like, he meets the beautiful Ellie. Things start looking up, or maybe just more complicated. . . .

A fun, fast-paced read, told from the points of view of all four of the main characters and based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. As the four get more entangled, and dragonflies swarm in the days leading up to midsummer night, Cannon delivers a wonderful look at friendship, courage, honesty, and love.

This book was light and fun, an enjoyable blend of comedy and romance. Cannon's modern approach to Shakespeare was a treat. I would recommend this book especially to more reluctant readers, as both the characters and the voice sparkle.

This book has some good humor, especially for teen readers. The technique of changing character views throughout the book is employed, sometimes with good effect, but often showing up the lack of characterization of the different characters (Ed and Scout's voices and mannerisms in "telling" their bits sound very similar).

Everything works out hopelessly easily at the end, showing that really, there aren't lasting consequences for choices, right? That if you just decide that you made a mistake, the universe will set it all right for you.

It's a nice little book, and a fun, quick read. But it didn't really leave much to distinguish itself.

Giving this book to my 15-year-old son--after I devoured it in one sitting--was like handing him raw broccoli that he mistook for candy. So much of what pre-teens and teenagers are happy and relieved to know about young love, friendship, and being decent, likeable human beings is included, for their reading pleasure, in this wonderful, funny, and timely story. Like children before they hit puberty, this book is a blessing.