Prep School Blues

Prep School Blues #1

by Christopher Conner

For prep school bad boy Larsen, life seems pretty sweet, until his beautiful girlfriend Gabrielle dumps him for his best friend Fareed. Soon, Larsen's the laughing stock of the school. Nerdy theater fanatic Jack lives in a world of his own, populated by dreams, and his classmate Rachel, who hopelessly loves him. A chance encounter between Jack and Larsen begins an unlikely friendship, maybe something more. But as they struggle to hide their feelings from each other, a dark secret unleashes a terrible tragedy that will change everyone's lives forever.

Genres: Young Adult, M M Romance

152 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2012

Reviews

[Guy Venturi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prep by school or prep by family and friends?

When your school is a private school, your life is different, but...it is also very similar to the public schools in many ways. Same bullies, same nerds, same geeks, same jocks, same teachers, same money shortage, same sports, same bad food, but different beds (not at home in most cases), and chaos families setting bad examples.
In
All the normal problems of hormones, friends, family, school, work, sports, and life while coming of age in a challenging world.

A close up look at a small part of a group of teens' lives and how small changes impact the relationships and interactions of them. Differences get exaggerated and similarities get minimized or ignored. Good or bad depends on the eye of the beholder and the rumors heard but not verified by friends.

The worry is mirrored views of self: analyzing what you think the other person sees as you, not how they see you or how you see yourself. This distorted reflection mirrors life as we think it is, not as it is. Events are exaggerated. Dreams are confusing. Like and love blur as friend warps into lover, lover into ex-, and all into ex-friend. Realistic scenarios are not real. Hi

[Will Lutes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ultimately I was frustrated by this story. Overall the premise was one that had been certainly tread before. The author had a decent enough angle to warrant my continued interest, save for one fatal flaw. The characters weren't ultimately that sympathetic. The ending was even more of a let down. I understand bittersweet but this had no sweetness at all. It wasn't even remotely satisfying. The secondary plot of the story (Fareed's abuse) was handled like yesterday's dirty laundry: glossed over and quickly discarded for the ending which left the secondary love interest (Larson) even more loathsome in the end. Coupled with the protagonist being a outright sap, there wasn't much to hang a hope onto here. And it wasn't because I didn't try to give it my all to want to cheer for these characters. As a first draft with an openness address some of these flaws this would have been a decent start. As it stands now, it is barely worthy of a draft treatment, which is a shame because the author was obviously trying to convey a worthy message in the story. It just was handled with brattish teen characters that you ultimately don't care what happens to them.

[NVTony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author has a good premise just took to long in getting into action. Will read next book to see if style has improved.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed....wishing there was more to the story though....will continue reading to see what happens with the 2 mains