What is Real

September 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-When Dex's dad attempts to commit suicide, the 17-year-old aspiring writer-director leaves his prep-school life with his mom and stepdad and returns to the small town where he grew up to take care of his disabled father. There he finds that his dad has started a full-scale marijuana growing operation, and Dex starts partaking in the crop so extensively that his reality and fantasies start to converge. The story alternates between a screenplay Dex is writing and his first-person perspective, and the confusing narration leaves readers unsure about what's imaginary and what's real. It touches on heavy topics-suicide, drug abuse, sex, and love-but without delving deeply into any of them. While Dex is well developed, the other characters never seem to move beyond vague caricatures, making their relationships difficult to understand and the plot less than engaging.-Sharon Senser McKellar, Oakland Public Library, CA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2011
Grades 10-1 Once Dex Pratt was a funny, athletic, popular, all-star kid. Now, a high-school senior, he describes himself as the teenaged, pissed off, raging stoner who fails hard and who lives with his broken dad in a broken house. Since Mom left with another man, and Dad attempted suicide, Dex finds escape by getting high on the pot he and Dad grow in the basement. Rivers writes in a first-person present-tense narrative that is true to a young stoner's wild, muddled viewpoint. Is Dex hallucinating when he sees a gorgeous girl? Are aliens making a crop circle in the fields? The pot-driven surrealism can feel overwhelming, and the story becomes repetitive and rambling. More interesting is the movie script Dex imagines of his life (cut to . . . flashback . . . focus on), and even if teens skim over some passages, the story's central dramas will hold them: a lost kid, angry and loving, who cares for a disabled parent as he tries to block out secrets and lies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)