A review by tintinintibet
Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence by Paul Feig

2.0

Teenage angst and nerdy anger is one thing, and can be funny (intentional or not), but there's a mean-even-in-retrospect element to the narrative of one or two stories that is unnerving. What's left is like Freaks and Geeks (awesome) without the tiny dose of the Wonder Years that show had. Feig gives us that tiny dose at the end of his book, but I think it is too late. We're already hoping he gets his ass kicked, gets a backbone, or just grows up already. At some point I stopped rooting for him when the adult narrator seemed to be bullying others in hindsight. Or maybe I'm weary and scarred by the harrowing embarrassment of these stories, and emptied of any empathetic reserves by the time Feig describes his scathing reaction to his junior prom date's appearance.

Just read a good review on goodreads by Crystal who describes the childhood stories as more compelling than the adolescent ones -- that's when I started to fade in my enthusiasm here too.