Noah Can't Even

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When Noah's best friend Harry kisses him at a party, Noah is shocked (but not altogether disappointed). Which I expected because Noah is socially inept, there were moments he would talk like an adult, a very wise one at that, but interacting with people were a no-no. When a totally cool, smart and popular girl named Sophie takes Noah and Harry to a party at a well-off girl’s house, Noah sees this as his ticket to normality. It felt like so much "wackiness" was piled up, one absurd thing after another, unloading on poor Noah.

The humour and general tone of the book is very British - with Noah adamant that people shouldn't use Americanisms. All in all, if you like YA with wonderful, funny writing, and are looking for a book that's more about peer pressure and crazy teen family drama, with minimal romance on page, you'll love this. His father disappeared years ago, his mother’s Beyonce tribute act is an unacceptable embarrassment, and his beloved gran is no longer herself. Finding strength and inspiration in the lyrics of "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba, he eventually ended up working on a range of West End shows and UK tours, co-wrote a feature-length rom-com for the BBC and directed Hollyoaks for C4 / Lime Pictures. Noah is kissed by his best friend Harry at a party and that, along with a billion crazy antics, blow up in his face, sending his world into a spiral.Yet, reading it for the second time, I noticed a lot of more serious elements to the story: Noah's love and care for his grandmother, particularly; Harry's arc, which is overpowered by Noah's fight with his own mind in terms of language, decency and self-acceptance. Noah is probably on the autism spectrum, having massive social skill issues, obsessions with the way things need to be and with mystery detectives, a point that makes his unraveling the details of his predicament insanely funny. He is bullied and ignored, and shelters his soul within elaborate game-playing scenarios with Harry. Is he gay, who is his mom dating, is his dad really dead, will he pay blackmailers, why is he popular all of a sudden, and shouldn’t he try kissing a girl?

Unlike Candide, who constantly evokes “the best of all possible worlds” (which was Voltaire being snarky, because he was a total cynic, too), Noah sees his world as the worst possible world, from which he yearns to escape. Clearly, Noah’s mother, Lisa, makes many bad choices, not the least of which is her Beyoncé tribute act under the nom de theatre of Ruby Devine. The only thing that disappointed me was the apparent bi-erasure and the somewhat dated approach to sexuality: the option of Noah liking girls AND boys (which tbh he seemed to) was never mentioned.For a long time, one wonders what this ending will be, but it is satisfying nonetheless (did I mention the tall, gym-toned (and very sensitive) male nurse? However, if you're looking for a touching romance, which develops over time and focuses on the MC's spending loads of time together.