Stan Smith is a loser. At 17, the former junior chess champion has become the 'Town's Laziest Register Monkey at the Town's Only Video Store'. Having graduated high school, Stan decides to forgo college to live in his parent's garage and write a movie. Despite his 165 IQ, all his movie ideas are horrible, not that he even comes close to finishing one. His only transport is his beat-up 10-speed bike that keeps getting vandalized. With no future and no car, a girl is obviously out of the question and if that weren't pathetic enough, he has to deal with a nutty family featuring his health-store-owning, organic-food-loving, vegan-freak mother and his inventor father who is obsessed with his eccentric creations. Even his dog has a farting problem. And to top it al, there's a bonehead jock threatening to kill him, for no apparent reason. Everyone thought Stan was going to Be Something and Go Somewhere but when this boy genius can't even get out of Happy Video, it looks like he's going nowhere, faster. When a crisis strikes, Stan must decide what kind of man he wants to be, and soon finds himself going somewhere after all.

 

 

There are 256 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2008 by Little, Brown & Company .

Sean Beaudoin is the author of Going Nowhere Faster. and Fade to Blue. He lives in Seattle with his wife and daughter.