Ratings29
Average rating3.8
Ruprecht Van Doren is an overweight genius whose hobbies include very difficult maths and the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Daniel 'Skippy' Juster is his roommate. In the grand old Dublin institution that is Seabrook College for Boys, nobody pays either of them much attention. But when Skippy falls for Lori, the Frisbee-playing Siren from the girls' school next door, suddenly all kinds of people take an interest - including Carl, part-time drug-dealer and official school psychopath.While his teachers battle over modernisation, and Ruprecht attempts to open a portal into a parallel universe, Skippy, in the name of love, is heading for a showdown - in the form of a fatal doughnut-eating race that only one person will survive. This unlikely tragedy will explode Seabrook's century-old complacency and bring all kinds of secrets into the light, until teachers and pupils alike discover that the fragile lines dividing past from present, love from betrayal - and even life from death - have become almost impossible to read . . .
Reviews with the most likes.
One sentence synopsis... The humour and horror of life through the eyes of a group of boys at a Catholic boarding school in Dublin. .
Read it if you like... “real” (aka gritty and dark, full of substance abuse, sex, and mental illness) high school stories - think Euphoria or Skins, but with a comic edge. .
Dream casting... the boys are supposed to be 13 years old... give Roman Griffin Davis and Archie Yates a few more years and then they'd be perfect as Skippy and his overweight genius roommate Ruprecht Van Doreen.
Just finished. I'm giving it 5 stars for now, but I need to let it settle for a bit. I almost quit reading after the first 200 or so pages, and I'm really glad I didn't.
great character voices, some seriously hilarious dialogue that would work great in a film. would've been 5 stars if it wasn't for the teacher character whom I found boring and completely unconvincing.