Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez

 Barely Missing Everything tells the story of Juan and JD, to high school friends just trying to live life. They go to school, play on the basketball team, go to parties, and deal with family issues much like all teens do. Everyone has family "stuff", right? Juan lives with his single mother and despite asking frequently, his mom has never told him who his father is. JD seems to lack direction-can he really be good at anything? Even his new dream of being a filmmaker gets laughed at by his family and friends.

Even though they have their family issues, Juan and Jd stick together, until one night at a party when cops show up. Both Juan and JD run. Unfortunately, Juan gets caught and arrested and that night seems to set a whole bunch of decisions, on both of their parts, in motion. Even when they both think they might have everything figured out, a plan to get everything back on track, life just seems to get in the way.

This is Matt Mendez's first book. It gives an interesting look into family, friendship, and figuring out just what it means to grow up. The ending is bittersweet...one I have to think about more. And, I guess that's part of what makes a book worth reading, right?

-TK



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Image
  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Famed macabre author Neil Gaiman tells the story of Nobody “Bod” Owens. The story starts in a very creepy way, as a baby, Bod is orphaned after his family is murdered. He has no remaining family left, so he is “adopted” by the ghostly residents of the graveyard across the street. Bod is raised by ghosts and The Graveyard Book tracks the strange and creepy happenings of day to day graveyard life. This book is a modern, spooky retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. You have probably all seen the movie. If you like the supernatural and adventure, then this is the book for you! -LG
Read more

The Cousins by Karen McManus

Image
  Karen McManus is one of my favorite authors. She writes awesome mystery/thrillers that are full of twists and turns. Her debut novel, One of Us is Lying is still by far her best (think the 80's movie The Breakfast Club only with a murder). That book has a sequel titled Two Can Keep a Secret, which is also very good.  In her third novel, which is completely separate from her first two, the readers sees three cousins get called to their grandmother's island home for summer jobs. They have no idea why they have been summoned because, after all, their grandmother disowned their parents years ago. Each cousin receives a note that says "You know what you did"which adds to the oddity of why they are there. Upon arrival, it quickly becomes clear that their grandmother has no idea they were even invited. Thus, the three cousins, who haven't seen each other in years, join up to figure out just what the heck is going on. The secrets the three cousins begin to dig up leads
Read more

The Violent Season by Sara Walters

Image
  This book is crazy! In a small town that is seemingly beset by violence every November, Wyatt begins to question just what is really behind all of these deaths. Upon stumbling on her mother's murdered body, and seeing some townsfolk die and classmates kill themselves, Wyatt is convinced there is a sickness afflicting the town. Wyatt also worries this sickness is starting to affect her boyfriend Cash, who seems to genuinely want to kill their classmate, Porter. Once Wyatt and Porter become partners for a class project, Wyatt's attention (and affection) is split between the two and she becomes more and more concerned that something terrible is going to happen to someone close to her and she might be in the most danger of anyone! Is there really something terribly wrong in Wolf Ridge or is Wyatt imagining everything? Is the sickness real or are people just naturally prone to doing bad things? Can Wyatt and her friends come out of the Violent Season unscathed or is one of them go
Read more