John’s Reviews > The Secret Lives of Boys: Inside the Raw Emotional World of Male Teens > Status Update

For a book that started out lamenting the popular narratives of troubled male teens, they sure chose to profile kids with a lot going on.

The Mini Adult seems more pleasant to be around than the Indie Fuck. More productive, too, if equally disdainful of his peers. Both seem pretty broken, though. The obsessively productive youth seems just as lost as the outcast desperate to craft his own brand of clique.

The author's voice is a little jarring as she translates for her teenage informant. Not sure how I feel about this project, whether it's meant to normalize or sensationalize youth. Choosing a recovering drug user for the first profile leans toward the latter.