“I was sitting in a plastic desk-chair contraption in an English classroom in Minnesota, tapping out the meter of lines from Pound's Cantos, wearing a baseball shirt with a small hole in the armpit. But I was also roiling with feelings and thoughts and doubts and conjectures and worries and layers of complication...If so much happened in my head, didn't I have to conclude that it was the same way with everyone else? I had to look down again. The world was too big.”
The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy
Genre: Contemporary, friendship
Author: Kate Hettemer
Content: Several curse words, some characters make out offscreen (er--page? o_O)
Memory: “When you die I bet you want real life, pure real life, eulogies that are unpoetic and messy, smeared with tears and truisms, cliched as hell, the kind of stuff a person means.”
Recommended to: Fans of Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson, if you're alright with a bit of revolution thrown in. :P
Rating: 4 stars.
Overview:
The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy (being known as Vigilante Poets from this point) is one of those books I want to live in. Like, crawl inside, shut the flaps, and let myself absorb the storyworld. It is also dorky, funny, and full of literary and musical references that make my fangirl soul happy.
Witty, sarcastic Ethan and his three friends decide to take down the reality TV show, For Art's Sake, that is being filmed at their high school, the esteemed Selwyn Arts Academy, where each student is more talented than the next. While studying Ezra Pound in English class, the friends are inspired to write a vigilante long poem and distribute it to the student body, detailing the evils of For Art's Sake. But then Luke—the creative force behind the poem and leader of the anti-show movement—becomes a contestant on the nefarious show. It's up to Ethan, his two remaining best friends, and a heroic gerbil named Baconnaise to save their school.
Okay, did that convince you to read it? No?
Well. Um. It convinced me, so. HOWEVER. Look at (another) amazing quote from this book:
“Everyone knows how to love, but not how to love well. The mistake is too easy. You call her a goddess and you think he's perfect and suddenly they're not people anymore. You've betrayed them. Instead of being in awe of their complexity, you've swept it away. ... Once you've recognized a person as a person, you can start to love that person well. It's an awful thing to learn, but it's the best thing in the world to know.”
Characters:
I'm resorting to the list style I used in All Fall Down again? So don't judge. :P
- Ethan. He's dorky and awkward and funny, and his obsession with tricolons is maybe one of the best things in this book. Also, I'm really hoping he and Elizabeth ended up together after the end of the book, alright?
- Jackson. If you've read Heist Society, think Simon. And Liz from Gallagher Girls. I feel like, if you combined them, you'd have an almost complete picture of Jackson, tech genius, sarcastic gerbil-owner, and driver of the Applevan.
- Elizabeth. This might sound bad but I don't actually remember much of her? I remember her dreadlocks (because of that lovely scene where Ethan ponders how he's missed how beautiful hers really are) and I remember her snarkiness, and the scene where they confront Luke. But other than that, my mind draws a blank.
- Luke. Lukelukeluke. I have so many mixed emotions. He was so amazing, and then he was...well, not...but I still like him? I think?
Buy it?
Um...maybe? If I found it on a good sale or something, probably.
Oops. This is a little late. :P But at least I'm posting it, right?
