This book and its characters grew on me as it went along. The first part comes as a heavy-handed attempt of a grown-up giving undercover advice to teens through the voice of the MC recounting what he has learned. But that fades away (minus one monologue from MC's friend on what being a good friend really means — though I really liked that part and think even adults could find use for it), and a lot of messy, tough, good situations happen that are ripe for mulling over.

Full of 90s nostalgia, a lot of it seemed pretty foreign to me: people smoking inside buildings, the problems of cordless phones, teens getting ahold of alcohol with zero problems, strong clique culture...

Anyways, I really liked this book a lot, but if you're a parent, you should probably read this book at the same time as your kid so you can talk about it.