Paper Covers Rock but Nothin' Can Cover, Break or Cut Boring and Pretentious

Paper Covers Rock. What a tortuous read. Pretentious. Cliche-ridden. Predictable. Oh man, it tries to be so cool. And so insightful. And so edgy with atheism. And so ahead of it's time with it's attitudes. The main character is supposed to be southern. Not a hint of it in him. That was extremely disappointing. There are a great many books set in New England private schools. Here was a southern boys school. It would have been really cool to learn of the subtle differences in the culture. Nothing. The book could have been set on the moon.
The female teacher is ridiculous and the main character, Alex, is so full of himself, he actually believes he's bound for greatness, yet he'll have to carry this giant guilt around with him for his whole tortured life. In reality, he'll probably end up in the noble, but not romantic, profession of middle management. He imagines himself a tortured artist. Really he's just a typical, self-absorbed hormonal teenage boy. Not bad. Just very average. He really has no special qualities at all, except a handful of teachers tell him that he does.
Also the female teacher, I can't remember her name, is concerned that he'll give up on himself and go to public school!
Oh perish the thought!
No not dreaded public education!
Just what is this book trying to say anyway?
It samples as much as Hootie and Blowfish doing "I Only Wanna Be with You." So it doesn't say too too much on its own.
I can't even bother with the plot. I spent too much time on this already.