Ninth grader Storm Forrest becomes obsessed with girls after his father dies of a heart attack. His whole life centers around finding new hearts to conquer. He even steals off to Ocean Grove, N.J. for the annual high school revels on Memorial Day weekend, but is too young to score. After a bad year in 10th grade with poor marks, Storm cracks up his mother's car, causing serious injury to his passengers, one of them the girl he had been dating. His troubles come thick and fast until he falls in love with Paula, for real this time. But Storm loses Paula's trust when he sleeps with a girl he picks up at a beach party. The relationship with Paula is rocky because Storm unconsciously sabotages it. Storm's best friend, Joel, is killed while raiding a garage for beer as a prank, and then Paula breaks up with Storm. Though he's devastated and almost flunks out his senior year, in the end he manages to pull himself out of his slump. This first novel, told in the first person, beautifully limns a teenage boy's conflicting feelings about romance, sex, grief, guilt and love. Readers will enjoy its refreshingly candid tone.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up According to Storm, the narrator, "the whole nine yards" represents "some kind of maximum or ultimate effort or experience." This book, despite its title, does not. The novel traces Storm's life from grades 9 to 12. The characters in the novel never come to life, although they certainly have life thrown at them. Storm faces his father's death (chapter one), his best friend's death and rejection by the girl he loves without once making readers feel his pain. None of the characters seem realnot the sensible older brother Forrest; not the mother who struggles to cope with life and Storm; not the wonderful, beautiful girlfriend who tries to teach Storm the difference between love and sex; not the fun-loving best friend who is shot while stealing beer from someone's garage. Storm himself is obsessed with girls and sex, drinking and cruising. His high-school years, which form the structure of the novel, pass by like the eye of the hurricane, leaving readers untouched by the surrounding chaos. For adolescent characters who are involving and truly come of age, direct readers to the novels of S. E. Hinton or Todd Strasser. Kathleen D. Whalin, New Canaan Library, Conn.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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