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lilyheron 's review for:
Noah Can't Even
by Simon James Green
(3.5*) If you like the sound of a chaotic comedy with ever-increasing ridiculous levels of disaster, you'll love Noah Can't Even. Noah is an endearingly hopeless teenage boy with big plans to do well enough in school to escape his dreary town and maybe even get a girlfriend. After all, some girls are nice enough, and that's what any normal boy wants, right? But when his best friend kisses him at a party, Noah tumbles into a cycle of misadventures that have to be experienced to be believed.
Big pluses for:
+ Hilarity. I loved the zany sense of humour.
+ Noah and Harry are a lovely pair and I'm excited to read more of them in the sequel.
+ Noah is a ridiculous protagonist with a big, good heart.
+ The book is very easy to read and I flew through it. It's a really fun, funny story.
Not so strong:
- The plot starts out well but does unravel, so much so that I struggled to write a quick synopsis of 'what the story is about', because... it's just all over the place, really. Personally, I enjoyed that experience overall, although I think sticking to the themes of Noah's journey would have led to a tighter plot.
- I didn't like how the female characters were either a) perfect angel girlfriend material b) slutty whore underage pregnancy bimbo or c) welfare scrounger chav mum. The characterisation of the female characters really left a bitter taste in my mouth, and the stereotypes felt more cruel than funny.
Love it or hate it, the novel centres itself around chaos and ridiculous antics, so it feels unfair for me to criticise the story in that respect. Sometimes it did feel a little overblown, but mostly I thought it was sweet and very funny. I wish more had been done to engage with the central figures in Noah's life - Harry especially - and his potentially supportive teacher.
I hope more is done in the sequel to engage with Noah's internalised homophobia and his understanding of his attraction to Harry, because I think this aspect of the novel was its strongest point. While Noah was frustrating at times, he acts like an overwhelmed and insecure teenager might, so I found his actions understandable. However, I would like further engagement with how he grows, and where his journey goes next. Noah has so much potential, and I'm hopefully his true story has only just begun.
Big pluses for:
+ Hilarity. I loved the zany sense of humour.
+ Noah and Harry are a lovely pair and I'm excited to read more of them in the sequel.
+ Noah is a ridiculous protagonist with a big, good heart.
+ The book is very easy to read and I flew through it. It's a really fun, funny story.
Not so strong:
- The plot starts out well but does unravel, so much so that I struggled to write a quick synopsis of 'what the story is about', because... it's just all over the place, really. Personally, I enjoyed that experience overall, although I think sticking to the themes of Noah's journey would have led to a tighter plot.
- I didn't like how the female characters were either a) perfect angel girlfriend material b) slutty whore underage pregnancy bimbo or c) welfare scrounger chav mum. The characterisation of the female characters really left a bitter taste in my mouth, and the stereotypes felt more cruel than funny.
Love it or hate it, the novel centres itself around chaos and ridiculous antics, so it feels unfair for me to criticise the story in that respect. Sometimes it did feel a little overblown, but mostly I thought it was sweet and very funny. I wish more had been done to engage with the central figures in Noah's life - Harry especially - and his potentially supportive teacher.
I hope more is done in the sequel to engage with Noah's internalised homophobia and his understanding of his attraction to Harry, because I think this aspect of the novel was its strongest point. While Noah was frustrating at times, he acts like an overwhelmed and insecure teenager might, so I found his actions understandable. However, I would like further engagement with how he grows, and where his journey goes next. Noah has so much potential, and I'm hopefully his true story has only just begun.