You Killed Wesley Payne

by Sean Beaudoin

He's come to do a job.
A job that involves a body.
A body wrapped in duct tape found hanging from the goal posts at the end of the football field.

You Killed Wesley Payne is a truly original update of classic pulp-noir filled with dark humor. Hard-boiled seventeen year-old Dalton Rev transfers to the mean hallways of Salt River High to take on the toughest case of his life. The question isn't whether Dalton's going to get paid. He always gets paid. Or whether he's gonna get the girl. He always (sometimes) gets the girl. The real question is whether Dalton Rev can outwit crooked cops and power-hungry cliques in time to solve the mystery of "The Body" before it solves him.



Sean Beaudoin ( Going Nowhere Faster , Fade to Blue ) evokes the distinctive voices of legendary crime/noir authors Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson with a little bit of Mean Girls and Heathers thrown in for good measure. It'll tease you, please you, and never ever leave you. Actually, that's not true. It's only a book. One that's going to suck you in, spit you out, and make you shake hands with the devil. Probably.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Humor, Teen, Fiction, Crime, Noir

368 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

Sean Beaudoin is the author of five Young Adult novels, including the rude zombie love story The Infects, and the black comedy rock and roll love story Wise Young Fool. Sean likes love stories almost as much as he loves to talk about himself in the third person. Welcome Thieves is a short story collection that will be out March '16 with Algonquin Press.

Reviews

[Yan · Rating 1 out of 5]

You Killed Wesley Payne was just too much for me. While in the midst of being surrounded by Beaudoin’s originality and creativity I was lost more than once, and bored a good third of the book. After finishing the book I was a little ticked off. There’s a thin line between a great plot twist and some random bloshite* and Beaudoin tip toes his way back and forth on that line.

You Killed Wesley offers readers some extras: a clique chart and index, a glossary because readers will really need this, and a few original Dalton stories. On screen this is a brilliant idea. On paper the chart is complicated, difficult to follow, with bolded text, bigger bolded text, and lines crisscrossing whichever way. The index was massive blocks of text that after two full paragraphs I gave up entirely. The glossary and extra stories I had no qualms with. Those I enjoyed immensely especially with the continuation of Dalton’s side notes and remarks.

With the actual body work of the novel the language is the first thing I picked up on. Some reviewers called it neo-noir. I have no idea what that means and will not pretend otherwise, but as I stated previously, the glossary will help out immensely. Secondly I noticed the lack of authority figures and the amount of violence and corruption there is in the book. Dystopia, anyone, within a high school setting? That’s a new one for me. Continuing through, readers find scenes dealing with relationship issues—parental, siblings, and opposite sex wise. Realistic, almost contemporary fiction? I’m a fan of contemporary. So You Killed Wesley Payne was imaginative, definitely something I haven’t particularly read, with two possible genres that I’ve enjoyed before, with a murder mystery at the forefront; what’s not to love? The answer to that question is the pace. The heavy text, the random dialogue that does not fit, and the slow crawl with no action set the book back so far.

In the end I did not enjoy You Killed Wesley Payne. There is a big audience for the creativity that You Killed Wesley Payne demonstrated, but I am not part of that audience.

*a term originated by Beaudoin

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before you even begin the thought of reading this book, check your normal meter at the door and rev your suspension of disbelief as far up as it can go. If you go into this one thinking a semi-normal who-dunnit story is going to ensue, you're grossly mistaken. This is Sean Beaudoin remember. He eats mind fucks for breakfast. Hello? Fade to Blue anyone?

Once you get over that, expect nothing and anticipate everything, you'll begin to settle into the story nicely. Of course, you need to get over that slapped-in-the-face-by-a-fish feeling that hits the second you start reading it because everything is just so absurd. But that's the beauty of it. Just go grab a brain condom and hop on for the ride.

Beaudoin has this ability to write the psychotic that makes it come out almost believable. Everything is so absolutely insane and so over the top that no one could make this kind of thing up, right? Not really. But that's how it works. It's like pulp noir and crack had a baby but instead of being this huge ol' mess, it's so well put together that you're almost afraid to touch it. Is it real? Is it delicate? Will it all come crumbling down at the end under the weight of its own insanity?

No, it won't. The story isn't sitting on toothpicks. It's sitting on granite columns. Beaudoin has woven a crazy storyline together so intricately that it actually ends normally. For everything that happened, all the rush rush rush running of the plot, you actually get to walk it off at the end. Take a breather. Let it all sink in. And you're not left disappointed. Nothing's hanging by a thread, any perceived plotholes are firmly closed up and you're left with the greatest happy ending ever. The skeevy "massage parlor" type of happy ending anyway. You might feel a little dirty, maybe a little used and thrown away, but you're done. You're completed and while you can ask questions about the future of the story, there's nothing left to ask about the present. It's finished.

I'm amazed at the writing that Beaudoin does. Despite its insanity, he creates characters that are relatable. You can feel Dalton's frustration at every turn and his ultimate surprise when it creeps up out of nowhere. Every character is a caricature but they're grounded at the same time. They're crazy mirror images of their own selves but you believe them. Everything they say and do, it all makes perfect sense within the context of the story. Just don't walk outside that context. Your head might explode.

If you liked Fade to Blue, you'll certainly like You Killed Wesley Payne. If you haven't read either yet, then what the hell are you waiting for? But like I said, remember to check your common sense at the door. It'll only hinder your reading ability with Beaudoin's work. You need to go into it with a truly open mind. Only then can you enjoy it.

[Misha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was all prepared to love the book, the moment I read it's a mystery. The book turned out to be not what I expected. I have mixed feelings about You Killed Wesley Payne. I don't think I am the right person to fully appreciate this book.

I will start with the positive aspects.
I did like You Killed Wesley Payne. I am very impressed by the originality of the book. It is definitely very witty and clever. Moreover, there are some great plot twists that kept me guessing. There were some funny dialogues that made me giggle out loud. You Killed Wesley Payne is also a satire on high school stereotypes;the author's description of the various cliques is quite entertaining.

As for the characters, Dalton is a very likeable protagonist. I warmed up to him right from the beginning. Dalton's ideal sleuth is Lexington Cole, the main protagonist of a detective series. He relies on Lexington Cole for all his knowledge - something which amused me a lot. Dalton tries to be a hard-boiled detective, a "tough man", yet he seems so innocent, at least compared to the other characters. All he wants is to raise money to support his family. He seemed like the only character who had any sort of principles.

I can totally imagine this book as a movie. The book has been compared to Mean Girls and Heathers, both of which I love! The book does have the same dark humour. In fact, I liked how dark it is. There's violence, chaos and corruption even among the school authorities -something which is very scarily real. Sometimes , it got too much for me though; everyone right from the teachers to the students seemed to be lacking any kind of ethics. Still, I have never read anything like this before and the freshness of the concept does count.

Coming to the negative part, there were times I just didn't get what was going on. The humour sometimes was completely lost on me. My main problem was the language or the slang used, which got confusing for me. I had to re-read certain lines just to fully comprehend what was happening. Moreover, the slow pace of the book made me push myself to read on further.

Despite the negative points, I think the book was worth my time just because how different it was. The unexpected ending did somewhat make up for the flaws. I would recommend it to the older teens and adults, especially those who appreciate crime/noir fiction.

Overall:
A very imaginative and creative book, one of the most original YA novels.

Recommended?
To the fans of Crime Noir fiction.

[Kamakana · Rating 2 out of 5]

260111: liked the idea more than execution. Longer, involved, extended plot and portrayal of cliques in high school society. Maybe hardboiled voice of narration sometimes too jokey. Not from criminal pov but from detective, though more cliche being beat up, femme fatales, violence, quips, interludes of detective handbook but little detection. Would probably have liked it more if I had not seen the movie ‘Brick’, superior in many ways, also set in hs.

[Sam Smith]

You Killed Wesley Payne
In the book titled “You killed Wesley Payne” by Sean Beaudoin, the main characters name is Dalton. He is in a school where shootings happen daily and crime is a natural thing. But he is the equivalent of a bounty hunter; he only works cases for money. He tries to find out who murdered who. He is a kid detective. He never gives up and isn’t afraid of threats. However he does have one thing that can compromise him; he is the equivalent of a dirty cop. In the world he lives in he is just some kid who acts like he works for a gang. But he actually works for the highest payer. But overall he is looking for the killer of Wesley Payne.
The book was made for the teen reader. However the book didn’t really appeal to me, because it’s completely unrealistic. I think it was supposed to make the teenager more interested in reading, but it did the complete opposite, like when they said that the school is full of shootings, and people are trying to sell test answers to people in the hallways. Although I could see why the author of the book thought that teenagers are violent, but not to the point shown in the book. The reason is a lot of movies like the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet thought that teenagers went around killing people, although they never stole test answers.
The book was very hard to read because there was so much to the story. I could never understand what was going on and I never knew where the setting was. The words they used where fairly simple and I could understand all the words, but sometimes I got confused on the way the author used the words; the author would use simple words, but give them in very complex orders to give completely different meanings. Like when the Dalton walked into the school, the book said that he walked into a building with tile flooring. So the author never used the names of locations, only hints of where he was.
The genre of the book was in my thoughts completely fantasy. The reason I thought that was because everything was completely unrealistic. It’s not like this could ever happen. You are never going to have a kid like this, get invited to Harvard. The book did have some realistic parts, because a bad student may get expelled from a good school to a pretty bad school full of murderers and cheaters. The book did have a couple of realistic moments because there are moments where you don’t want people to know you have a secret hobby. The main character has as hobby all of his own. He loves to write, and I love to read and collect coins.
Overall this book would get a five out of ten from me. This book didn’t make any sense at times, but it did require you to be able to figure out what they said and where they were. This book was almost all fantasy and nothing realistic. If you want a book to confuse someone I would recommend this book. But if you want to read a good book I would pass on this one. The story was completely messed up and not even close to how real teenagers are.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a couple of pages to understand what was going on in the bizarre and dark world that Beaudoin created: Salt River. You're immediately thrown into a strange and corrupted Salt River High, where the students must learn to survive all while making a profit. Money is the only thing that really matters, the guy with the hockey mask on top of the roof shoots at the students to keep the order, and cliques are everything (even the faculty is a clique: the Fack Cult.)

The story follows Dalton Rev, a Private Dick (and sometimes just a dick) who has just transferred to Salt River High to solve the mystery of The Body and hopefully uncover...well, who killed Wesley Payne?

Wesley Payne's murder (or was it suicide?) brings Dalton plenty of trouble and as soon as he steps off his scooter on his first day of school, we know that things are not going to go smoothly. He faces a beating, gets shot at, has to pay to get a decent class schedule and proper care from the nurse, and is threatened by Inference (the principle)...all within a few hours of his first day at school. Dalton is a likeable character (most of the time) and although he was determined to be cool and aloof, he was actually a nice guy just trying to get paid...sort of. He's funny and smart mouthed, usually thinking of his favorite fictional character, Lex Cole, and what he would do in such strange situations that Dalton seems to always find himself in. His interactions with the other characters were interesting and always came with great dialogue.

It takes a little while to get used to the strangeness of this book, but once you get past the first few pages and realize that there isn't much we would call "normal" going on, it is too enjoyable to put down. You are quickly moving through a fast-paced, unstoppable adventure, full of dark humor, lots of slang, plenty of characters who connect and add quite a lot to the story, and the mystery of who killed The Body that will keep you guessing until the end. There are also a few extra additions: the glossary, clique chart, index and other interesting little bits that are fun to read. I recommend You Killed Wesley Payne to other young adult lovers who like detective stories and pulp noir.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed You Killed Wesley Payne. It’s a smart, fast-paced mystery that makes you feel like you’re right in the middle of all the action. The stylistic language is difficult to get into at first (I’d recommend perusing the glossary or the clique information in the front of the book), but once you immerse yourself, it becomes second nature, and furthermore it enhances the feel of the book.

Dalton, the protagonist, comes off as slick and suave, but deep down he’s easy to connect to. The notes from his “Dick Handbook” (short for detective handbook, pervs) prove that he’s not all that he makes himself out to be. This is nice, because he’s really the only relatable character in the book. Dalton also has his own reasons for doing sleuthing work, which shows his kinder side. I liked that he had a cause.

The setting, Salt River High, is definitely different. It’s the perfect place to set the mystery, but it takes some getting used to. There are no touchy-feely Afterschool Special moments in this high school—it’s all about surviving and making a profit. Salt River was a change of pace from the typically realistic YA high school, and the organization of all the cliques was flawless. Every single person mentioned in the book had connections and a part to play.

The mystery aspect of You Killed Wesley Payne was also executed well. I honestly could not figure out who killed Wesley until the very end of the book. The way that Boudoin pulled everything together in the end made a lot of sense, and it really felt like I was in Dalton’s head solving the puzzle, rather than being an onlooker.

I would definitely recommend You Killed Wesley Payne to any reader who is looking for a highly original YA mystery. The book’s witty jargon and fast pacing make it almost impossible to put down, and the male narrator makes the book easily appeal to either males or females. So grab yourself a bottle of Rush and head to the fracking bookstore, already, ya fishstick!

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF @ 12%.

I admire Beaudoin for being brave and really embracing a highly stylized form of writing. This leans into the neo-noir style so heavily it almost feels like a parody. I think this could have worked better in a short story or novella, but it is hard to sustain an entire book on style without substance.

Dalton Rev is a high school private eye who has transferred to Salt River High to solve the mystery of Wesley Payne's death. It's been ruled a suicide, but Dalton suspects it was a murder.

Salt River High is an absurdist version of a high school. It doesn't just have cliques - it has cliques that work like mob factions. And it doesn't just have ineffectual teachers - the teacher are regularly bought off by the students and the "Lee Harvies" (i.e., Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy's assassin) keep the peace with their sniping skills. This book came out in 2011 when perhaps school shootings were not quite as frequent. But in a world of active shooter drills starting in elementary school, it is a little uncomfortable to have such casual gun violence starting in the first chapter.

There is a lot of made-up slang in the book, with passages like this:

"LEE HARVIES!" someone yelled, and there was chaos, more shots picking up the dirt in pairs, friends and enemies scattering. Plaths formed a black beret phalanx. Sis Boom Bahs circled like tight-sweatered chickens. The Balls dragged a groggy Chuff into the locker room as everyone shielded their heads, ducking into the relative safety of the school.

On the one hand, the creativity is high and some of the clique names are softly amusing, on the other hand, I just want a mystery, not to stretch my brain on new slang.

The women in this book also suffer horribly from the neo noir world - in classic noir style they are all gams and bad news. Even the principal is described thusly: "She was wearing a tight red dress that showed off considerable leadership talents." It's true to the noir genre, but it's eye-roll producing nonetheless.

Beaudoin does an excellent job with the neo noir style, and if you are looking for an absurdist noir, this book is for you. But the style isn't my thing and the pacing was too slow - at 12% it was just a bunch of people posturing and cracking witticisms at each other. I want a faster pace in a mystery.

[Mia Boloz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought that this book was pretty good. It had an interesting plot and good character development. I liked the twists and turns the author threw at the reader. However, this book had too many twists and turns. Just when I thought I knew what was happening, the author would throw me completely off with a new discovery in the case. It was very confusing to follow and had an almost disappointing ending because of how convoluted the plot was and then it was just explained very hastily at the end. It was an alright book with a lot of mystery.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

You Killed Wesley Payne An interesting, funny and somewhat parodish book about pulp mysteries, and honestly I found it pretty interesting. I'm planning on rereading YKWP again to understand a few misconceptions, but overall this is an entertaining book!

I'm not too quick to read mystery (pulp, excessive) books, but maybe it's the cover that gotten me interested.

The premise of the story is ideal: 17 year old Dalton Rev is an amateur wannabe-detective who solves crimes/mysteries on his detective website. Dalton decided to solve Wesley Payne's murder requested by Wesley's sister, Macy Payne. Police claims Wesley committed suicide, but is it so? Only one way to find out... at Salt River High.

I really enjoyed the setup at the beginning, creating this direct, mysterish themed setting through sharp monologue and funny dialogue. I just going to be blunt with ya, Dalton Rev is certainly funny with his snarky comments, seriously. I believe that's what made this book stand out from the rest...

Throughout the story we began to understand Dalton and his main purpose for being a detective, his personal 'whys' and explore Dalton's homelife when not in 'detective' mode. I like Dalton's reasoning based on Lex Cole(man?), main character of a detective series within this book and I gotta say... it's amusing. I'm sure I would base half of my logic/reasoning on my favorite character!

Other characters besides Dalton are his family, 'friends' and cliques that runs predominantly in this mystery book. Salt River High is the main focus resolving Wesley's murder, but not only that, the crude adults and students serve a plot, too. The main cliques that are 'suspects' are Balls and Pinker Caskets (Football seniors verses Gothic emos). These two clique runs the school, but with two big kings urging to cut each others throats to be the only one remaining on top, it's up to Dalton and his quick thinking to resolve this brewing battle AND use the cliques to resolve Wesley's mystery.

I liked the interaction, it's sharp and cut clean, 'to the point' I will say. The bonding is brief, but it gives up a taste of emotions from each character. Personally, I like Kurt Tarot, Newspaper, and Chuff... I don't know how to explain it, but I want to know more about those characters, unfortunately, we don't have much characterization :( but of course, this is about Dalton and not those three.

I don't have any personal issues with this novel, to be honest. My gripe about this novel is too many nicknames (Newspaper, Turd Unit, Foxxes, Balls, Rush ETC) so many that it makes it difficult for me to keep up. Using odd phrases that I have no clue what it means...- guess that's why we have a specific dictionary for them, eh?

I sincerely enjoyed this book. However, around the last part of the story... everything about my perception changed. Like I said before, I'm going to reread this novel again to understand better, but I felt like a bunch of random people were involved giving Dalton 'hints'.

Like, when Mole was the 'henchmen' for Macy, I didn't get it, nor understand what's the purpose for a having the character be that way. Maybe there were hints concluding the Mole wasn't all the nice guy as it seems, and Macy's the villain using her sweet persona to manipulate Dalton... I don't have a problem with it, at least on Macy's part, it made me learn something. Also, characters like Newspaper, Cassiopeia, Turd Unit were involved assisting the mystery for Dalton, but my problem is that there wasn't a lead, no justification for it... I felt like the author just threw them in for whatever reason.

What killed it for me is when Dalton was an actual detective. I'm like, "say what?" this was... out of place, personally. I suppose it's a good thing, right? Don't want to have a cliche 'underdog goes hero' story, yeah? I just kind of wanted Dalton being a wannabe-detective that achieved the detective status. When the police constantly giving Dalton doubt, shrugging the teen off, I rooted for Dalton to prove those suckers that he too can solve mysteries! It's doesn't have to be classified to the police. And then at the end I felt like I've been suckerpunched. Dalton is already a detective pretending to be a wannabe-detective... say what?

Also, Cassiopeia and Newspaper were important to figuring out the mystery behind Wesley's death. I just... am unsure why they were important. There wasn't much about them that proved importance, so why do they hold the title of importance? These characters weren't explored and so, I felt the author threw random titles on these characters. Same for Turd Unit (Kirkland) just WTH? No leads, no buildup, just... random.

Overall, I recommend this book for mystery lovers, and those who likes comedy :)

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been many years since I visited the waters of Young Adult fiction. On the recommendation of a friend, I dipped my toe back in with Sean Beaudoin's "You Killed Wesley Payne," and Good Lord, am I glad I did.

YKWP walks the fine line of being smart without a tedious disaffected and jaded overtone. It is funny in a realistic and intelligent way, and the plot moves both quickly and unpredictably, which makes it a bullet train of a read. The characters fall into over-the-top exaggerations of high school stereotypes, but each one has depth and sincerity that make them both fun and believable. Dalton Rev, the detective protagonist, is sharp-witted and well-schooled in the areas of literature and music, yet Beaudoin encases him in all the awkward insecurities that plague the average high schooler, making him intensely likable. His boyish fascination with fictional detective Lex Cole is a hilarious theme running throughout the story (and the titles of the Lex Cole book series are comic triumphs in and of themselves).

Picture a high school that is the intersection of the movies "Heathers" and "Escape from New York." The students run the school with a mixture of violence, unwritten rules and little governance from adults or the faculty. Everyone is running some kind of racket- even some bandages from the school nurse will require the greasing of the RN's palm. Guns, while temporarily banned, raise no eyebrows, and a team of masked snipers ("the Lee Harvies"), keep the peace from the school roof. Jocks ("Balls") align against Rockers, as a bloodthirsty battle for school supremacy unfolds with a host of sub-cliques pushing the action forward in a blur of sharp dialogue and hairpin plot twists.

As the title implies, the death of Wesley Payne, a popular student, is the underlying mystery, inviting the arrival of Dalton Rev, who is far closer to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character from the movie "Brick," than he is to Encyclopedia Brown. Navigating through the tight-knit cliques, would be girlfriends, law enforcement, and a decidedly unprincipled Principal, Rev runs into beatings, dead ends, deceptions and mysterious clues from anonymous helpers.

The ending is fantastic- well told, believable, and full of a few twists that I did not see coming. Brilliantly, Beaudoin continues to reveal some additional mysteries with a one-two punch that will leave the reader smiling, satisfied, and eagerly awaiting Rev's next case.

I could not put this down.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dalton Rev has just transferred to Salt River High. It's not exactly an ordinary school, with the cliques ruling like mobs and snipers keeping everyone in line, so it's a good thing that Dalton is no ordinary guy. He's here on business - the private dick business, to be exact. He has been hired to come look into the supposed suicide of one Wesley Payne. With the odds stacked against him, Dalton has a limited time frame to find the killer - unless the killer gets to him first.

You Killed Wesley Payne reads less like pulp fiction / noir and more like a nerdy kid trying to cover it up by acting like his fictional hero, Lexington Cole, a Hardy Boys-esque mystery novel protagonist. This seemed to me to be a play on the Remington Steele television franchise, in which Remington Steele uses bits of old movies to help him figure out what to do next or how to solve a mystery, and so I didn't find it terribly original. The actions of the high school in general I found simply too ridiculous to be believable, and it was very difficult to continue after reading about a palm being greased for the tenth-plus time. Beaudoin includes a bordering-on-obnoxious amount of extra materials along with the story itself, including a Clique Chart, a separate Clique Index, a glossary, Dalton Rev's scholarship application essays, a snippet of a Lexington Cole story, and a list of Lexington Cole novels (which I'm fairly certain don't exist in real life). These extras total 47 pages. 47! Sheesh. Anyway, another point of contension I have with this book is that Dalton's parents don't even realize that he's in the private investigator business. At the very least, they should be questioning why their son is transferring schools right and left. Lastly, the tone that one would expect from a noir novel was, in my opinion, missing. Instead, Dalton comes off as "more ironic than thou," which is the best term I have to describe a social outcast who tries to overcome it by being "cool" but whose social references are sadly lacking. All in all, this was a lackluster novel. I can see some of the emo-type kids I went to high school with (way back in the day) enjoying this novel, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend it.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel transports the reader into the life of 17-year old Dalton Rev. He has to survive all the usual high school stuff: bullies, teachers, grades, parents, relationships, etc.. The only difference, he’s a Private Investigator traveling to high schools in the area solving crimes in order to raise money to support his family and buy body armor for his brother’s unit in Iraq. A little more pressure than your usual teen has. The novel is written in the film noir style. There’s even an index in the back of the book for all the slang used in the text. In this novel Dalton transfers to Salt River High right after the apparent suicide of Wesley Payne. Dalton has been hired to find out if Wesley’s death was a suicide or a homicide. Salt River is a school in turmoil. The school has been overrun by cliques that have each cornered a racket, even the teachers, principal and cops are on the take. The main cliques are out of control and at war with one another. Dalton soon finds himself in deeper than he imagined and in the middle of the clique war. Oh, and there’s also a guy following him around offering him a scholarship to Harvard. This novel was slick, sophisticated and fast paced. I was enthralled by the author’s writing style and loved his ability to use so much slang to require a 20-page dictionary in the back of the book. This novel was a fun read and anyone who picks it up will get quickly sucked in to this world of mob-like high schoolers, sleuthing, and surprise twists.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a young adult market drenched with pandering regurgitations, Sean Beaudoin's pulp noir satire stands out like Ken Jennings on Jersey Shore. Everyone at Salt River High is on the take, from the lowliest crowdaround to the Fac Cult T. Into this quagmire of cliques and sub-cliques each with a different scam, enters our unlikely hero, and teen private eye Dalton Rev. To solve the murder about which no one is talking, Dalton must risk life and limb and maintain a steady banter of witty dialogue in absurd situations reminiscent of a Kinky Friedman novel. If you're looking for a true mystery, this isn't your book, as there are some significant holes, and about three quarters in I got the feeling that the author was suddenly thinking that he needed to get serious and find a way to bring it all together. It's a relatively minor flaw as the plot isn't really the point here anyway. Give this one to your teens who are too cool for teen books and who recognize society's absurdities. Adults are likely to dig it too, especially if they weren't super crazy about high school. Oh, and, as a bonus, there's not actually any swearing, despite the gritty setting. I guess Will Smith was right about smart people finding a better way to express themselves.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious send-up of hardboiled noir detective fiction, high school, and human nature. Dalton Rev led me into a world so over-the-top twisted, so money-grubbing, so soulless and painfully corrupt, that it veered around the bend to being uncomfortably believable in its way. With bonus song lyrics, fiction attempts, t-shirt slogans, and off-brand candy!
I want to hire Pinker Casket to play at my next baby naming or backyard barbecue.
Don't be a fish stick like me and save the up-to-date slang glossary and in-depth clique explanations for after you finish the book. Flip to the back and read them first to preserve valuable mental energy that could be wasted on wondering who the heck Face Boi are and what people mean by "crackstar".

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable and quickly-paced YA noir that's as hardboiled as an overcooked egg. Though remiscent in certain ways to the film Brick and the television series Veronica Mars, this book stakes out territory all of it's own: a high school that's closer to the rough, brutal mining camp of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest than anything else. Imagine high school cliques as crime sindicates. The dialog is suitably clever, the villains brutally evil, and femmes as duly fatale as one would expect - all with a delightful dash here and there of pop-culture references.

[Kelly]

Gave it 200 pages, which is more than half before deciding that the style killed the story too much. I got the biting social commentary and the whole noir/hard boiled aspects of it, but in doing it so heavily, there is no story. It's buried. There were too many characters and none mattered. The book tried too hard.

[Shruthi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Um. That was interesting, I suppose...
This book threw me off. It felt like a parody, it was that ridiculous.

The ending was out of nowhere and Dalton honestly gets nothing.
The lingo was too much to keep track of and what was with using 'Bob' as a word to swear by?!?!?!

Would not recommend.

[Emma Shunk · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is so chaotic it is amazing... 😂😂😂

[Winter Gray · Rating 1 out of 5]

NOTE: I didn’t read last chapter 10, but that’s about how I needed to know about the book. I also had to re read chapters (will touch on that later) hence why it took me awhile to read only 10 chapters.

Some praise to begin, Dalton, our protagonist, is an amazing charismatic character. He has fun banter with other characters and his sarcastic view in life in general makes the book a whole lot more interesting to read. He is the only reason I stuck with this book as long as I did.
Now that the positives are out of the way, let’s talk about the rest of the book.
Now, I do think the cliques in the book are interesting, but there’s so much to keep track of. I know the author gave us a chart but to be completely honest that chart confused me more. Poplah, Balls, it’s a lot to keep track of.
On that note, the author just dumps exposition onto the reader in the first chapter, you don’t get much time to breathe. I understand expiation is important but when you just dump everything into your audience without much time to process what the hell is happening, it can leave readers lost.
I didn’t understand who to main character was until page 23. I didn’t understand the main plait points until page 70. Don’t you think this is a bit extreme? Also once I got through chapter 8 and things were starting to make sense chapter nine made me even more confused. I understand it’s a mystery and I’m not supposed to understand everything but GOD. I should probably understand the books basic elements my chapter 5 at LEAST. Also, the book talks to the audience like they are following the story perfectly, and maybe I’m just slow, but I was not following.
Now, let’s talk about the books female characters. No joke, most of their personality can be summed up as either, “she’s hot and smart” (Macy) or “she’s hot and dumb” (every other female character.) some female characters are just “she’s hot” and if leans a bag taste in my mouth. The protagonist just oodles at girls bodies and that’s about it. It really takes me out of the story when I have to groan when another girl is summed up as “she’s hot, submissive, and wears a short skirt.” These girls have the personality of sprinkles on white bread.
To conclude, just read the book for yourself if you feel like it. I hated it, but I know at least SOMEONE liked it.

[Amanda Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a lot of other readers of this book, much of the comedic elements and references were so obscure that the cumbersome glossary was necessary to understand the plot of the novel. I felt that the mystery was well thought out and exciting yet I struggled to get past the jargon and references that I didn't understand. I guess the teenage "slang" was meant to be part of the charm of the book but for me, it interfered with the plot and made it more difficult to understand.
However, this was definitely a unique book - partly because I had no idea that it was meant to be dystopia. I didn't understand how any high school or city could be run by a bunch of corrupt teenagers. But once I understood that it wasn't supposed to be completely realistic, I could focus on the plot more.
I did enjoy the complexity of Dalton's character. He is vulnerable and scared, and not afraid to admit his faults to himself. Each character was thoroughly involved in the mystery of the story, making it worthwhile to understand and read about them.
Overall, this was a intriguing book with many surprising twists that got bogged down by the technobabble.

[C M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this was a very strange book to read. I was confused most of the time about all of the different cliques because I didn't know which was which and why they were called what they were. Also there were no clues for the reader to pick up on to form their own opinion on who the killer was. The whole "mystery" wasn't written very well. The whole point of the book was to figure out who killed Wesley Payne because the cops had misjudged the crime scene and said it was a suicide. So we spend a whole 368 pages trying to figure that out just to find out that Wesley Payne really did commit suicide. So in reality the whole book was pointless. There was also all of these other things that the author spent a long time setting up just to say it was all fake. Like Dalton being accepted to Harvard. Or Macy being interested in Dalton. The whole book was just a big lie. It had a very interesting beginning but the ending left me unsatisfied. There was no resolution really except that Dalton destroyed the clique system at Salt River High School. I didn't really like this book, but maybe there's other people out there who would really like it.

[Liam Cleckner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dalton Rev just transferred to Salt River High. It's a very strange school with high crime rates and murders are a regular thing. Dalton, however, is here to solve a crime. After Wesley Payne's supposed suicide, he has been hired to find Wesley's murderer, But after 100,000 dollars goes missing, Dalton realizes it was all a trick. There are many twists and discoveries leading you through the book. In the end, they discover that the murderer was indeed a suicide caused by his own sister. However, that wasn't the real crime. The real criminal was Elisha Cook who tried to get away with the 100,000 dollars.

The book You Killed Wesley Payne was not a very good book in my opinion. It had very good potential, however, it just wasn't properly executed in my opinion. There was so much to the story that it made it very hard to read, and it was difficult to understand what was going on a lot of the time. Many parts of the book were completely unrealistic too. This book was overly complex. The overall story I thought was pretty decent, but personally, I would give this book a 2/5.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was...unusual, to say the least. If you're expecting a simple, easy-to-follow detective story, then I would turn away right now. You killed Wesley Payne is a great story, but the style of language used - some call it neo-noir - makes the plot somewhat hard to follow. You kind of have to leave your expectations at the door when reading this book; it becomes clear that the rampant corruption and racketeering of the cliques at the school is meant to be overexaggerated and definitely not reflective of real life. If you manage to get past the craziness, then there is a somewhat sweet story and a compelling mystery underneath.

[Collin Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was great. I had never read a mystery/thriller before, so this was a fun change of pace. I loved how many action-packed moments there were, as well as the author's writing style. If I had to pick something that I disliked about this book, it would be that it was hard to remember certain details. In the book, there are many different "cliques" or groups of people. And while it was easy to remember the main ones, the other groups sort of fell into obscurity, and it made recollection of information about them difficult. Overall, this book was great and I would recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries and action.

[Kevin McCann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book at the ripe age of 14, and again this year (26 now), and I loved it still. I understand why folks felt a bit confused by the mystery tag since there’s no solid way to anticipate the big twist of the novel. But knowing that this is more of a Phillip Marlowe novel or a classic two fist no brain cells detective novel meant I still adored it when I read it again. It’s terse, melodramatic, a little psychotic, funny as hell, and it’s the perfect YA version of a Raymond chandler story.

[Kylee Baier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a very interesting book. I definitely saw where the author was coming from in terms of style. It was like a black and white private detective movie mixed with modern day high school. It seemed strange at first, but that's the only way things really make sense, all the clichés and the suspense and the double- or triple- or double-triple-crossings. You never really know what's going on until the very end, and even then there are still some surprises.

[Axel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the boys’ version of novels about British girls with their own languages, and it was a ride. I honestly don’t know what I thought. I don’t even know if I liked it. This book was an experience indeed. The cover, the synopsis, and the actual story were all telling me different things. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to say that I liked it. It was certainly original.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good fun to read, you can always tell when an author is enjoying toying with the reader and digging deep into their own world. I kept picturing this novel as a movie, it'd be wacky and wild to watch but I'm sure I'd love it just as much.

[Rachel Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As if Ned Beauman wrote a Douglas Coupland novel but was actually trying to write a Rian Johnson screenplay. To be honest, given Netflix's love of a) teen drama and b) whodunnits, I'm surprised they're not all over this as a limited 8 part series.