There was something compelling here, I'm just not sure what it is. It's not the writing, which was choppy and disaffected. It's not the setting, because as far as I could tell, nothing about these stories being set in Palo Alto affected them one way or another. It sure as hell wasn't the characters, because I hated almost every single one of these kids.

All of the above issues were annoying enough for me that I didn't bother trying to figure out what kept me going enough to finish the entire book, and I think that's the main problem with these stories. James Franco is almost ruthless about how much he doesn't care, which comes across through these children.

If there's one true thing about this book, it's that it displays just how messed up this generation can be, and that people move on from horrible things as if nothing ever happened.