Eighty-Sixed

by Brian Phares

When Owen, a socially awkward, home-schooled teenager, gets a summer job in a restaurant he finds himself thrust into a world if inside jokes, crude nicknames, and a girl who may be his best friend...or worst nightmare. Over the course of the summer he'll learn some valuable lessons about friendship, love, trust, and realize that what he wants out of life probably isn't what he's been told he wants.

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 30, 2018

About the author

Brian was born in Rochester, New York, in 1981, and by his own account, spent the next several years as a baby. He was a completely average human child, and no one should have any reason to think otherwise. Brian studied English and Creative Writing at The State University of New York at Oswego before earning an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University in Boston. Brian has worked in a grocery store, a restaurant, a hardware store, a mall shoe store, and a high school. Eventually he’ll write about all of those jobs.

Reviews

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

It certainly had been awhile since I read a definitely "YA" novel of any kind. Sometimes as an adult, we become a little (or a lot) jaded at the world. We forget what it felt like to be in love for the first time, to experiment with your identity, to understand what connects us as humans transcends our education, class, gender or worldview.

This book brought me back to those things. This is a tightly-written book--think Hemingway--and it cuts right to the chase. We're dealing with two teenagers here, worlds apart in all of the above categories I mentioned, and yet they slowly intertwine their stories in ways that aren't easily undone, despite betrayal and sometimes deception.

I had some expectations for where the plot was going when I began to read. I thought, maybe this book will predictably culminate in a teen romance, all the pieces will fall neatly into place, everyone will have learned a valuable lesson and changed themselves forever. But the author, Brian Phares, knows too well how humans work. He understands the complexity of the human condition. Nothing is "neat" about the relationships these teenagers form while working in a restaurant over the summer. They act in perfectly human, unpredictable ways, which is one of the reasons I love this book.

I laughed at times, too. The author has a sharp wit and endows his characters with it as well. They're interesting people; it's interesting to read their dialogue and imagine that you are eavesdropping on actual conversations. THAT'S how good this writing is. You're not reading it, you're living it.

This is not "just another YA novel." Sure, the specific issues the teens face may seem on the surface to only concern them. However, the deeper you dig, the more you realize just how universal these struggles are. Teens are dealing with loss, grief, change which is utterly out of their control. They have to learn the hard way that the adults in their lives are sometimes the people who fail them and hurt them in the most intimate, personal ways. It's good for us adults to remember that.

To give this book anything less than 5 stars feels criminal. Read it. Re-read it. Every time you forget to walk in someone else's shoes for a mile, pick up Eighty-Sixed and widen your empathic center again.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you’re thirteen or thirty or even one hundred, it’s scary to follow your dreams. There are so many outside forces - family, society, etc. - that pile expectation after expectation on a person, making it seem so much easier and rational to just give up your aspirations and settle for what’s safe and normal. Thankfully, there are some hearty souls out there who refuse to buckle under all that stress. My good friend, Brian Phares, is one of those people and his debut novel, “Eighty-Sixed,” tells the story of another strong-willed dreamer striving to have and be something more than ordinary. It’s a heartfelt, humorous, and occasionally raunchy YA gem.

The majority of “Eighty-Sixed” takes place in the kitchen and backrooms of the Infinite River Grill, a popular seasonal restaurant and bar where sheltered teen Owen is hired as a dishwasher but promoted to apprentice chef during his first shift. The book alternates between his struggles with adjusting to the rowdy environment and the more personal issues faced by Ringo, the snarky young dishwasher who can’t stand her home life and yearns for a sense of belonging. The Infinite River Grill is populated by a motley cast of characters and their booze- and drug-fueled hi-jinx provide some levity to balance Owen’ and Ringo’s more mature storylines. The camaraderie amongst the employees feels nuanced and real, as does the setting, which could’ve only come from a lot of real-life experience in the chaos of a commercial kitchen. There’s a lot of cursing and bad behavior in the book (and a lil bit of sex, too) so I wouldn’t feel comfortable enough to let my 12-year-old read it just yet (I’d probably give it another year or two) but I’m sure a slightly older crowd would appreciate the themes of what defines a home and being true to oneself that lay at the heart of “Eighty-Sixed.” Oh, and it’s funny.

Crisp, sharply-observed, and endearing, I’d have given “Eighty-Sixed” a five-star review even if I hadn’t known its author since middle school. Honestly, and I mean this as praise, I often forgot that I was reading a novel written by my friend; I got so sucked into the story that my friendship with Brian Phares was irrelevant. I can’t wait to see where his dreams take him next but you can be damn sure that I’ll be along for the ride.

[Maria Kendig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adrienne and Matt did a great job with their reviews of Eighty-Sixed. I really enjoyed the book. The characters were entertainingly quirky and unpredictable. Although it took a few re-reads of some early chapters before I could keep everyone straight in my mind, I eventually felt as if I too were one of the employees. The Kindle edition needs a bit more proofreading at some point. I wish I had noted the edits as I was reading, but once hooked, I raced through the novel and couldn't be stopped!

[Mary Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short order summer

The complicated and at times improbable details sneak up on you as you're totally engrossed in the drama and excitement of a young man rebelling. Well planned out and executed.