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King of the Screwups K L Going Books

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King of the Screwups K L Going Books

A great read for young adults. Almost every teen, including reluctant readers, will be able to relate to Liam and his well-intentioned (usually), often amusing attempts to win the approval of his impossible to please father. K. L. Going creates characters who are real human beings - sometimes flawed, always sincere, frequently funny and not a single stereotype in the bunch. King of the Screwups shows that sometimes growing up means facing painful truths about yourself, friends and family.


Tags : Amazon.com: King of the Screwups (9780152062583): K. L. Going: Books,K. L. Going,King of the Screwups,HMH Books for Young Readers,0152062580,Family - Alternative Family,Social Themes - General,Behavior;Fiction.,Fathers and sons;Fiction.,Uncles;Fiction.,Behavior,Boys & Men,Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12),Fathers and sons,Fiction,Social Issues - Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance,Uncles,YOUNG ADULT FICTION,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Boys & Men,YOUNG ADULT FICTION General,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Social Themes Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance,Young Adult Fiction Family Alternative Family,Young Adult Fiction Social Themes General (see also headings under Family)

King of the Screwups K L Going Books Reviews

When I first started reading about the character Liam, he got on my nerves. He just seemed like a whiny, poor little rich kid. But that changed as I read on and I began to understand him.

As the blurb above says, Liam was kicked out of his own home by his father when his father caught him with a girl in an undressed state. His father having had enough of his antics sent him to live with his 'aunt' Pete. And, that was the best thing that his father could have done for Liam.

I ended up feeling so sorry for him. He had been raised from a young kid to believe he was a screwup, which was reinforced by the way his father treated him. At the same time as I wanted to shake Liam and tell him to snap out of it, I also wanted to hug him and kick his father's ass. I felt so emotionally drawn to Liam as he struggled to please his father, when I knew he never would.

He tried so hard to be what his father wanted him to be - so much so that he denied what he was good at. Even trying new things at school because he knew his father had once done them.

And, that's why I love 'aunt' Pete and the guys. They saw Liam's good points. And even though they gave him a hard time now and then, they tried to reinforce the positive.

I didn't like Darleen. She felt too much like the token 'hater girl'. You know, the one who has to dislike the boy on principle because no one else does. It annoyed me. Although I wouldn't have liked to have seen her fall all over him, she could have at least been friendly - instead of being in her element as 'class bitch'.

The story itself was really quite good. I particularly liked the flashback scenes of Liam in his younger years. It was a way to tell an awesome back story. I also liked the way it ended. It was somewhat satisfying to see Liam stand up for himself.

The only trouble was that although the book had elements I really loved, it didn't give me the breathless, excited feeling that an awesome book does, which is why I'm giving it the rating I am.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes a rom/com.
Meet Liam Geller, 17-year-old who has it all, starting with popularity. His mother Sarah was a celebrated fashion model for many years, and his father Allan Geller is a highly respected financial guru. But Liam is a screwup, and sometimes in colossal ways.

Liam is the King of the Screwups in his father's eyes, a teen that just can't get it together. There's nothing that he can do right; his grades is school are awful, he parties all night long even and gets plastered, knowing the whole time that it will irritate his father. But with a half-naked girl on his father's desk frantically begging his father not to call her parents, Liam has gone too far.

This is the latest in a saga of Liam's "future risking behavior by Mr. Popularity," as his father term it. So his father tells him to get out, just before the beginning of his senior year in high school. Rather than move in with his stern grandparents, which is his dad's idea, he follows his mom's guidance and moves in with his cross-dressing, trailer-dwelling, gay disk jockey Uncle Pete.

Pete is someone of whom Liam's Dad doesn't even speak to, much les approve of. But "Aunt Pete" agrees to take Liam in, and advises him he needs to figure out what he's going to do with his life. Not overjoyed to have Liam invading his personal life, Pete makes a deal if Liam refrains from commenting on Pete's collection of animal print garments and neon-colored spandex pants, he'll make room for Liam's carefully selected conservative wardrobe.

Liam is convinced that detaching himself from his "Mr. Popularity" identity is the key to becoming the studious individual that his father would approve of, but this consistently backfires. He finds unexpected father figures in Pete and his four friends. Though he's a so-called fish out of water in his uncle's small town in upstate New York, Liam has a real attraction to drama, fashion and modeling. Liam remains straight, and is attracted in a friendly way with to Darleen, the girl next door, and thinks that his Dad would approve of the friendship.

His new school offers Liam a good opportunity to prove himself to his dad. Determined to drop his "Mr. Popularity" persona, he dresses like he pictures a stereotypical nerd to be, joins the AV club, and tries not to be popular. But try as much as he might, no matter how much Liam tries to be unpopular, the more popular he becomes. And with the help of Pete's friends, an English teacher, police officer and others, Liam comes into his own and surprises even himself.

Though this is a book for young adults, this reader thought that author K.L. Going did a good job of explaining the trials and tribulations of teens with quite a bit of empathy. The dialogues are quite good, and this is just one example

"Doesn't it bother you that people don't get it?'

Pete starts to shake his head then he catches himself and holds still.

Nope,' he says. 'If you know what you love, it doesn't matter what other people think. Besides, people are challenged when they're uncomfortable."

The book has its lulls here and there, but for the most it's a fairly fast and good read, offering more insight than many such offerings today that either portray teens as negative and brooding "emo" types, or gushing and frivolous characters. Her 2005 book The Liberation of Gabriel King gave us an understanding of a young man with fears of spiders, corpses, loose cows, and the fifth grade, all against the backdrop living in a small town in Georgia with an active Ku Klux Klan in the summer of 1976.

Author K. L. Going is adept at exploring teenage self-esteem, yet making it not too heavy-handed and keeping it all quite upbeat, with parts that can be quite humorous as well. Recommended for teens who want a break from the required reading lists, and for adults who really care about what teenagers might go through in their lives without being beat to boredom with heavy psychological undertones. It's a good book.
Really great book following the story of a teenage boy named Liam as he struggles to find an identity that will agree with his father's picky temper. Provides an interesting commentary on issues such as fitting in, homosexuality, and popularity.
great writing compelling story
This is a good book that anyone who has family that won't let them be themselves needs to read. Enlightening.
Favorite book by K.L Going!! It is one of her light books, which makes it the right kind of read! Funny, touching, fun, and the characters are the best!
LOVED IT!!!
This YA book is about a teenage boy who cant get along with his very strict father, and so he is sent away to live with his mother's brother. It reminded me a little bit of Holden Caufield in Catcher in the Rye. Happily, all's well that end's well in both books.
A great read for young adults. Almost every teen, including reluctant readers, will be able to relate to Liam and his well-intentioned (usually), often amusing attempts to win the approval of his impossible to please father. K. L. Going creates characters who are real human beings - sometimes flawed, always sincere, frequently funny and not a single stereotype in the bunch. King of the Screwups shows that sometimes growing up means facing painful truths about yourself, friends and family.