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Sam, the protagonist of Nick Hornby's first teenage novel ''Slam'', is a regular 16 year old. He enjoys hanging out with his mates, skating and eating junk food. He trundles along at school. He has an idol (Tony Hawk the skater) whom he turns to more often than his family. Then his first serious girlfriend, Alicia, falls pregnant, and his life changes.
I loathed ''Slam'''s first chapter. Flat out loathed it. Each new page brought more of what's wrong with books for teenagers: a 50 year old man trying to be down with the kids so he wheels out a name of someone they'll think is cool, then thinks "oh umm... teenagers always say 'whatever', and have friends with stupid nicknames. I'd better put some of that in here". Given how highly acclaimed [[''About a Boy]]'' was for being so in touch with its young protagonist, it was a major surprise and disappointment.
Soon after Sam first meets his girlfriend Alicia, the novel clicks.
Despite a very brief shaky start, ''Slam'' is a fantastic book, brimming with characters that you can, should and do care about. Highly recommended.
Thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag. Would you like to read about what Nick Hornby's been [[Stuff I've Been Reading by Nick Hornby|reading]]?
You may also like [[My Side of the Story]] by [[:Category:Will Davis|Will Davis]] and [[Teacher's Dead]] by [[:Category:Benjamin Zephaniah|Benjamin Zephaniah]].
