Teen Angst? Naaah.... by Ned Vizzini

Teen Angst? Naaah... by Ned Vizzini
Release Date: 2000
Publisher: Random House
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 254
Source: Borders
Buy the Book: Amazon

Rating: 5/5

"Ned Vizzini is just your average teenager, fighting everyday battles with school, parents, street people, rock bands, friends, fame, camp, sex (sort of), Cancun (almost), prom, beer, Nintendo, the New York subway system, and more.

With wit, irony, and honesty, Ned shares his take on high school conundrums, extracurricular disasters, and the big moments that adults inevitably manage to build up and sell short at the same time.

Written by the author of It's Kind of a Funny Story and Be More Chill when he was nineteen, this collection of essays (in which names have been changed "so I don't get yelled at") never fails to bring out the humor and truth of growing up."

     What is so great about this book is the truthfulness in it.  You can really tell that all of this stuff happened to this author.  It's just on the cuff of unbelievable but yet you can see it happening to you in a moment.   Everything is incredibly easy to relate to.  If you've been to high school or are in high school you will be able to relate to at least one of the twenty stories .

     This book is also not written like a memoir.  It never feels like the author is saying "When I was your age..." because he can't.  He wrote these essays when he was a teen.  There is not glorification.  It's all there, the ugly bits included because that is what happened.

     I also really enjoyed the footnotes.  At times they were unneeded but when they directed me online to watch the video which I was reading about I LOVED them.  It was really exciting to see the deadly turtle movie right after reading Ned's experience with the movie.

     I also really liked the normality of it.  With all the books today the focus on the extremes of drug usage and drinking this all too familiar, true to life story was a welcome reprise.

   If you've read any of Ned's other books, looking to find a more real book or simply want to laugh till your lungs protest check this book out.