Youth In Revolt

I just finished the sixth and final book in the Nick Twisp novels. About eight or nine years ago, my brother’s ex-girlfriend borrowed me her copy of Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne. She mentioned I might like the book. I mostly read non-fiction. I usually limit my reading to left wing politics, baseball, true crime and pop culture. Sure, I’ve read fiction from time to time, but I just seemed to enjoy biographies and such a little more.

I am not what one would call well read. My brother collects books like I used to collect baseball cards in the 70’s. Thus, while my innate knowledge of baseball is better then his, he is much smarter and vastly more well read then I will ever be. Anyway, I was having a conversation with my brother and his then girlfriend about books and she recommended Youth in Revolt to me. The next time I saw her she borrowed me her personal copy.

From the first time I cracked the book open I have been a fan of the entire series. For those who have not heard of the books, the first was Youth in Revolt. In it, it contained the first three books. Then Payne released three sequels. Revolting Youth, Young and Revolting and finally Revoltingly Young.

The series centers around the love life of fourteen year old Nick Twisp. He meets Sheeni Sanders and his life is never the same. I don’t want to divulge too much about the books, as I want to try to encourage as many people as possible to give them a read. Like I said, when I first got it I was hooked. You know a book is good when you are reading it, you don’t want it to end. Each time I read any of the books in the series, that is exactly how I felt.

As I was reading the first novel, I could not put it down. It got so bad that I was supposed to go out one Saturday night. Instead, I stayed home shut the TV off and finished the thing as I was so curious as to how the story ends, I could not wait anymore. I do 99.9 % of my reading on the train. So, for me to go to the lengths I went to finish that book shows you just how much I liked it.

I guess reading these books, takes me back to my own youth. Not that the main character Nick and I have anything in common other then our first names. It is more, the thought process of what it was like to be a teenager with raging hormones. In those books you can escape for awhile and at least for me, it takes me back to simpler times.

I admit I am pretty nostalgic for my lost youth. I still like a lot of the movies and music from the eighties, no matter how silly, time has rendered it. These books take me back too how a young adolescent thinks. When all there is to care about is the love of your life and how to win girls over.

There is a lot more going on in the series then just that, and they are quite humorous. Needless to say I highly recommend the whole series. I am sad to learn that Payne has pretty much closed the door on there being a 7^th novel in the series. He did a pretty good job of tying up all the loose ends in the last book but, still reading about an adult Nick Twisp is interesting. As I am now also, in my thirties (Nick is about seven years younger then me in the novels) I would like to see the story continue. Still it was a good run.

I read that a movie is in the works with Michael Cera in the lead role. While I love Cera, I just worry that he might be getting a tad old to play the 14 year old Nick. The IMDB page has a release date of December 12, 2008. I am hopeful that the film does the book justice but we shall see. Anyway, if anyone wants to borrow my copy of Youth in Revolt let me know. It is all I can do to spread the joy that it has given me all of these years.