33 Snowfish

Adam Rapp

There should be a warning label on novels written in dialogue, or at the very least a glossary a la A Clockwork Orange at the back. While Rapp's protagonists here speak in somewhat recognizable English, a good deal of what they say simply makes no sense, and the slang they're using is never explained. This leads very quickly to an unreadable book.

In it three teens-- Boobie, Curl, and Custis-- are on a trip. Where? They don't know. They plan to raise some money by selling Boobie's infant brother, whom they've kidnapped and taken with them.

The seeds of something that could have been brilliant. For all the book's unreadability, the characters are well-drawn and mostly distinct, with appealing quirks and depths of amorality rarely found in adult novels, much less stuff penned for the teen set. I'm fond (too much so, perhaps) of depravity for the sake of depravity, but Rapp has written the book so that the reader is forced to sift through acres of slang terms to get to the point, which obviously dilutes the very point he's trying to make (not to mention the imagery associated with it); a hard read for all the wrong reasons. Not worth your time.