Revolting Youth: The Further Journals of Nick Twisp

by C.D. Payne

Nick Twisp is back! America's most literate teen diarist returns with more riotous adventures through the land mines of 21st century adolescence. This sequel to C.D. Payne's acclaimed first novel "Youth in Revolt" finds love-struck Nick Twisp still on the lam from the law and his parents. Our 14-year-old hero (and his multiplying alter egos) now must battle blizzards, back-stabbing aliens, vengeful parents, and school officials determined to schedule him into girls' gym. He conspires to play cupid, journeys south of the border on a secret mission, takes some gunplay lessons from his distraught mom, and still finds time to confide all to his diary while inadvertently wreaking havoc in cyberspace. A must-read for Nick Twisp fans.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Young Adult, Contemporary, Novels, Comedy, Modern

278 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Author and showman C.D. Payne was born in Akron, Ohio in 1949 (making him a contemporary of Richard Gere and Meryl Streep). He spent his early years in West Virginia and southern Ohio, moving back to Akron while still a mere tot.

He went to public schools in Akron, and then graduated from Harvard College, where he majored in history and participated in the annual spring riot. In 1971 he moved to California. During the next 25 years, he held over 50 jobs including newspaper editor, book publisher's assistant, proofreader, trailer park handyman, and catalog writer.

Since 2004 he has been the proprietor of the Eyelusion Museum, a mobile discovery museum in a restored and polished 1964 Airstream trailer. His latest mobile sideshow is a 1950s miniature town (shown below) called Zippy Town. It can been seen at the Santa Rosa Handcar Regatta and other events.

He is married and lives in Sonoma County.

Reviews

[Max Ostrovsky · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's taken me a while to put together my thoughts and opinion about C.D. Payne's sequel to Youth In Revolt.

When we last left Nick Twisp, he had successfully hooked up with the love of his life, all the while completely estranging himself from his family, hunted by the FBI, a lost inheritance, a found fortune and adventures in crossdressing.

Revolting Youth picks up right where the first book left off. Nick is still stuck in a dress, but with his lovely girlfriend. Then all hell breaks loose. Again, he is on the run from the law, adopting a new persona and trying to get back his girlfriend and the while, dodging bullets; literal and figurative.

I'm cynical and I doubt its love ending. Maybe it's because I never trusted the girl that Nick supposedly falls in love with. She just seems manipulative and I hate the protagonist, Nick, for not seeing it.

Or maybe, I'm just jealous. He's a 14 year old who finds the girl of his dreams and does everything his imagination can come up with to get her. At that age, we all have wonderfully vivid imaginations, but how many of us actually act out our imaginations? I know that I had a particularly vivid one, but I never acted on it. And perhaps that is why I didn't date until after high school. What Nick does in this two books is act fully on his imagination and this is unfathomable to me. He is brilliant at scheming, planning and plotting. He gets everything he wants.

My imagination about how to get girls was no where near as possible or as far fetched as his. Mine were along the lines of saving my crush from a herd of ninjas, being horrible disfigured in an accident and having a 6 million dollar surgery on me to make me smarter, stronger, faster, or an eccentric billionaire leaving me his high-tech talking car (hey, it was the 80's).

But Nick's ideas actually were in the realm of reality. As far fetched as they were, they were all feasable. And he did it. He acted on his fantasies. He let nothing get in the way of him getting the girl. So maybe that is the lesson. Maybe at my ripening age, I've become jaded to the idea of acting out my fantasies to get the things I want. I don't plot or scheme. So reading these books, while enjoyable, only reminds me of the things I didn't do in life; the risks I didn't take.

I guess reading the book at my age, I can't appreciate as much Nick's adventures. I guess these two books would be perfect for guys between the ages of 13 and 19.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish that I could give this 3.5 stars, as 3 doesn't seem to be enough, but 4 seems too generous. Though not nearly as fun as the first book, Revolting Youth is a hilarious continuation of Nick Twisp's crazy adventures as a sex-obsessed teenager. His continuing troubled romance with Sheeni, his run-ins with the law and school officials, and his money problems are just as present in this book as they were in the first. And Nick's mastery of the English language makes the book a delight to read, although by this time Payne was publishing on his own, so it's not quite as well-edited as the first book.

Still, there is something that seems to be missing a bit from this book. Maybe by now I'm used to Nick's antics, so they're not as shockingly hilarious. Perhaps I've grown a tiny bit weary of Nick's obsession with Sheeni. I'm not sure I can put my finger on it, but there is something about this book that just doesn't stick with me quite as much as the first one does. Youth in Revolt is, no question, my favorite book of all time. It is funny and absolutely ridiculous and I love it. And maybe if this had simply been the fourth "book" in that novel, I wouldn't have minded it. But while I have read Youth in Revolt so often that it is literally falling apart (and I have taped it back together), I've only picked up Revolting Youth three or four times over the years.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's kind of impossible for a sequel to be better than the original.

That being said, Revolting Youth was just as engrossing to read as the first one was! But it's half the length, so it didn't provide me with a full week of escapism into the teenage exploits of Nick Twisp (aka Nick Dillinger aka Rick Hunter) as did Youth In Revolt.

It also ends in a way which sets it up for a third book, which I'll probably be reading very soon. But it feels like a sloppy ending.

[Choco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun although not as much as the previous one :)

[Brannon O'Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nick Twisp will never die (unless he does). I loved Youth In Revolt and I love this book just the same. It's the perfect continuation of the events in the first book. You never know what is going to happen but everything that does happen just makes so much sense. Incredible.

[Carrie Kish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book I've read the entire series

[James Buckelew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huge fan, this book was better than the first. What a wild ride to be a part of.

[Kristen Fort · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, I finished the sequel before finishing the first one. The story itself is just as bizarre as the first hundred pages of the first book. Who are these characters?

[Ariana Sky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always iconic and hilarious. Completed by the usual -absolutely above and beyond- climatic ending.

[Alpha · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This is the direct sequel to Youth in Revolt by Payne and it is a great follow up but probably delivers the same kind of stuff the first novel had. The only reason it isn't up to par to the first is because the first novel was actually three volumes and this novel is just one thus you only get so much from it. There are more interesting things happening as Nick meets more interesting characters but the plot is a continuation from the first as he tries his hardest to get Sheeni all to himself.

However, I don't want people to get twisted because the plot is still funny and stuff does happen but it is the ending of the novel and what is to come which makes me look forward to the next novel. I will have to say this novel is the ""filler novel"" or the ""bad book"" out of the Nick Twisp Series but I only read four volumes so far as I am writing this review. There is still the other two volumes to read and both of those volumes have a different theme to show. However, this novel is needed to fill in gaps and answer questions the first three volumes left open-ended and I am happy Payne did that before the events in the next novel took place."

[Logan Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Youth in Revolt has been one of my favorite books for a long time now. It's one of the few novels that a teenage boy can actually relate too without being catered to. While it's difficult to relate to the main character, he's a completely understandable person. Every decision he makes seems like the obvious course of action in his given situation. Payne's writing style continues into this book as well, with observational humor and surreal situations that are proper reflections of teenage life. However, character development for the titular Twisp seems to completely stagnate. While his face, name, voice, height, age, and gender change, his personality stays the same. He become predictable.

Despite this stagnation, the book is still just as entertaining as the first. It's relative brevity is more than made up for by the quality of the writing and story. This second verse is the same as the first.

[Kiro Selanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to its predecessor, but the shtick is getting old. Protagonist Nick Twisp has utterly divorced himself from the normal life of a teenager, so in this book he has jumped the shark.

[Muneer Uddin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book continues the madcap adventures of Nick Twisp.

In the beginning of this book, Nick and his girlfriend Sheeni, are happily living in a rented house after the success of Nick's invention. However, their respective sets of parents soon confiscate all the cash and this forces Nick to run away and plot his reunion with Sheeni, who is playing him the whole time like in the first book.

Payne is a modern comedic genius. I place this book and its predecessor in the same class as John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces. The pacing is manic and the action nonstop. Just when you think that it can't get any zanier, Payne pulls another trick out of his hat.

This, and Youth In Revolt, are the funniest books I've ever read.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

A slight sequel to the excellent Youth in Revolt, Revolting Youth would almost have to pale in comparison to C.D. Payne's first gigantic novel telling of the ups and downs of teenager Nick Twisp. Revolting Youth is a third of the size of the former novel and while the book packs quite a bit of story into its pages, comparison with YiR is gonna levy a letdown.

It's a fun book and it's nice to see where the characters are after we left them in the last novel, but (for me at least) the magic wasn't there again.

[Natalie Pietro · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Youth in Revolt I was so hyped to read this second installment of these wonderful books. However I was very very disapointed by this book. So different from the first and so far fatched. Really would you get plastic sergery to hid from the cops and to be with your love for the rest of your life. I think he went a little to far for the love of this girl and boy I felt sorry for him by the end of the book. The funny thing is I still cant wait to read the third installment of these books. It was a wild ride and one I wish I didnt take.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose there are two reasons to revisit characters and settings from a pervious and well received book if you’re an author. The first being because they are so attached the characters that giving them another book feels right the other is to cash on the pervious book’s success. I feel like this book which was basically unnecessary falls into the latter. Though still, if you like erectile humor by all means read away. Plus having read Youth in Revolt don’t you just have to read this?

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

continuation of Life in Revolt. More teen angst! Funny but more and more far fetched and completely unbelievable and unrealistic but a fun read none the less. The idea that "kids" would have the access, the knowledge or the luck that these kids have in their expeditions is so unbelievable. On the other hand, I like the authors great imagination and sense of humor. Dry and raunchy...just like me ;O)

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of the charm of Youth in Revolt was the absurd-but-not-quite-downright-unbelievable exploits of its protagonist.

Revolting Youth crosses that line more than once, becoming, at times, just a little too outlandish and far-fetched for its own good. Though a fraction of the length of its predecessor, it feels longer and more randomly cobbled-together.

...and yet, all the same, by the end it's impossible not to admit that it was kind of fun along the way.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

After finishing Youth in Revolt I was going to restart tackling the Western Canon once again. But I couldn't pass up this smaller sequel. Much of what makes Youth in Revolt an enjoyable book carries over. However, the series starts to suffer from its own material. The increasingly bizarre scenarios started to jolt me from my immersion in the Twispian atopia. Overall, another fun book and not a bad sequel. But I think I'm ready to move on.

[novoten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nejšílenější dobrodružství z těch čtyřech útlých knížeček, ale přesto pořád nemohu odolat. Ať se Nick (/Carlotta/Francois/Rick) vrtne do Ukiahu, Los Angeles nebo Mississippi, drží se veškeré jeho eskapády už dávno za hranicí uvěřitelnosti, ale přesto mu moje škodolibá část stále ještě fandí. Snad protože jsem během dospívání byl mnohem klidnější osoba, snad protože by mu moje tehdejší já celou odyseu se Sheeni neskutečně závidělo.

[Chuck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Might have too fond a memory of the first book I read by Payne (Youth In Revolt), which I remembered as having a witty and fun pacing to a really implausible Ferris Bueller type story (with more drugs, profanity, and sex thrown in). This was kind of a paint by numbers follow up, nothing too impressive, but entertaining at times.

[Nick Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Youth in Revolt wasn't enough. I went for the next in the series. More of the same, really.

I think at this point I'm Twisp'ed (or is it Hunter'ed) out. At least for the short-middle term. I can see coming back to this series when I'm feeling nostalgic for the adventurous childhood I had in my head.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never have too much Nick Twisp! I want more more more! 'Revolting Youth' brings the brilliant addition of Connie, Benecia, Mexico, Belmondo plastic surgery -- Nick's life and journals continue in the brilliant absurdity. Absolutely fantastic!

[carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

i loved "youth in revolt" and this book moves just as quickly and made me laugh out loud just as much. c.d. payne's books are always good to read when your brain is feeling too sluggish to actually read. they most fast and are addictive like crack.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not for everyone, but it supposedly will be a miniseries on MTV. [return][return]Sequel toYouth in Revolt which had an underground cult following, especially after the self-published book was picked up by Doubleday.

[Elizabeth Nordquest · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is ridiculous. About halfway through I got really angry about Nicks new diguise, but I was over that about 5 pages later. These books are so well written and wild, that I can't stay mad for long- no matter what happens. Also, dump Sheeni!

[Mairzi]

I am giving up and will never finish this book. The first one (Youth in Revolt) was funny and clever. This one is just more of the same and becomes very tiresome after a few pages. It is a short book and I am more then half way through but I just can't get myself to finish it.

[Karim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing sequel to an amazing book in an amazing series. The book is in a journal form depicting the adventures of teenage rebel Nick Twisp, after we last saw him in Payne's previous novel "Youth in Revolt".Payne does it again! cant wait to get my hands on the next book to this great series.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good follow up to Youth in Revolt. Sometimes sequels can be a waste, but this was seamless with the same wit bring the story to an acceptable stopping point - for a teenager's time. Page turner, without the murder mystery.

[Brina · Rating 3 out of 5]

still good
LA people