Flash Burnout is responsible for my tardiness this morning. It is true that I am tardy nearly every morning, but this time I blame something other than myself. I just couldn't put this book down even though I have been really tired lately. I've fallen in love with all of the characters, especially fifteen year old Blake. This book is a coming-of-age story set in Portland of all places. I guess one good thing came from my trip to that sorry-butt city. I probably wouldn't have read Flash if I hadn't just gotten back from The Hole of Misery, but I enjoy reading books set in places I have been.Blake has a girlfriend and a best girl friend and he is trying to juggle the women in his life. His best girl friend has some serious troubles at home and Blake gets involved when he takes a picture of a sleeping homeless woman for photography class, shows it to his friend and hears her respond, "That's my mom!".
One of the things I also love about this book, something that sets it apart from a lot of teen books, is that there is a "religious person" in the book who is not 1) evil 2) conservative 3) stupid. Unreal! I couldn't believe it! Blake's mom is a hospital chaplin who wears a clerical collar and everything sometimes, but guess what!? Blake still swears and is into sex and rebellion just like nearly every other fifteen year old boy and his mom isn't trying to 1)exorcise a demon out of him 2) ground him for life 3) disown him. She's a real person! Wow! What an original character! It's almost like real life!
SPOILER!
Okay so I have finished this book and I didn't like the ending at all. But that's okay! I didn't like it because I truly cared for the characters. It was like life, we don't always like the outcome of events in our lives because we care about ourselves and the people around us and well, as we all know, not everything has a happy ending.
This book is awesome. It is the one good thing about Portland!
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