Noah Can't Even

Wow! The things that happen to Noah! It's difficult finding YA LGBT books, set in the UK. When I came across this, I had to have it, and I am so glad I bought it. Noah is a fifteen year old, going through some....interesting stuff. Everything seems to be average, until his best friend Harry kisses him. This opens up all kinds of scenarios that Noah deals with, in a very funny way. As a character, Noah is hilarious! He's in top set for everything, except maybe self-awareness. He's into Murder, She Wrote and Agatha Christie, thinks he might be into Sophie, knows the difference between types of wine glasses, and uses "their" and "there" appropriately. He's also against the use of American English. However, the writer does use two instances of American English, which....annoyed me, let's just say. One was the use of "snuck" (ew). The other was the use of the simple past tense with a time adverb. Hugely nitpicky, I know, but these American English uses did stand out to me because of Noah's insistence on preferring British English. The writing is very funny, and I do think that SJG does a really good job of portraying teenage life, though I was rather surprised at the things that happen in a place called Little Fobbing! It really should be called Great Fibbing! Overall, I would really like to see a sequel, and, hopefully, this book will get optioned for a film!!

A great first effort by Simon James Green and a really enjoyable book, aimed at the young adult audience (although I'm probably closer to the author's age rather than the target age) but really enjoyable by anyone who can relate to the difficulties of being a teenager and trying to fit in. I read that this book has been optioned for TV and I can really see this as a six part series on E4.

Charming and funny. Lighthearted. No one commits suicide or gets killed. I look forward to reading about Noah in the next book.