"Modern Guide to Non-Stop Cursing" . . .
Samuel Radcliffe was ready to get through his senior year of high school. But his mother gets a new job, his father can work anywhere, and now he faced going through the torture of bullying as he faced all new opponents ready to take him down. His family provided no emotional support at all. His brother had announced he was gay at their old school to start the bullying. So this year is going to be very bad. But it was worse than he had thought when the football star just released from jail is back at school too. Why does it have to be so hard to be different?
In homeroom, Noah approached Samuel to sit beside him and offer to meet him at lunch. Samuel told him he was gay but Noah just shrugged. By lunchtime, a crowd was gathering, which Noah explained was because Hunter Reil was back from juvie. He had put another boy in a coma and the girl involved won’t say a word. So when two guys grabbed Samuel as he was changing for gym, it wasn’t a total surprise. Hunter was angry because Samuel had looked at him at lunch. Samuel pointed out that the entire student body had stared. But Hunter gave him a warning anyway. Gym class was torture since Hunter and his friends targeted Samuel, whether he had the ball or not, and he was aching all over. The coach ignored what was going on, but Samuel wouldn’t back down and let them think he was weak. When the coach finally shouted a warning, Samuel had already been hit on the side of his head and was unconscious. The coach then proceeded to yell at Hunter for throwing the football – to the wrong person. Hunter picked up the unconscious body, noting how unnaturally skinny he was, and carried him to the nurse’s office. He had a concussion and his head was pounding.
His deadbeat brother, Brad, was called to pick him up and drive him home, smirking and making fun of him the entire trip. When Brad thought he slammed his car’s door too hard, he attacked Samuel and ended up on the ground. Their furious mother threatened to call the cops on Samuel and decided not to allow him dinner tonight, but he was already used to starving so what did it matter? Between his wretched home life and the bullies now gathering around him at school, will Samuel even last through this final year of cruelty? Will Hunter ever admit to him that he is gay as well? Or is it too late for anything else when the cops throw Samuel against the wall, arresting him for running away from home?
I know cursing is used in story lines to indicate frustration, anger, or maybe it gives a false feeling of bravado. But from page 1 on, it seemed that Samuel could not talk without cursing, even when he was alone or in self-talk situations, and I personally found it annoying and distracting. Seriously, that quantity of profanity loses its effectiveness (if it ever had any) and merely irritates. It was the behavior of others that created the environment Samuel had to deal with and kept the tension there to move the story along. I really hate bully stories, but thought this one would be different with Samuel’s strength of character. Perhaps it will as we see more when things resolve in the next book.