Title: Destroy All Cars
Author: Blake Nelson
Format: Hardback
Release Date: May 1st, 2009
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Library
Pages In This Edition: 224
Rating:

/5

On the Cover:


Beyond the Cover:

Summary taken from Goodreads:

"James Hoff likes to rant against America's consumerist culture. He also likes to rant against his ex-girlfriend, Sadie, who he feels isn't doing enough to change the world. But just like he can't avoid buying things, he also can't avoid Sadie for long. This is a fantastic, funny, sexy, cool masterpiece from one of the best YA writers at work today, an anti-consumerist love story that's all about idealism, in both James's relationship with the world and his relationships with the people around him."


Review:
I want to start by saying I'm totally bought into reading whatever I can find written by Blake Nelson; I loved Recovery Road, and I love Destroy All Cars. In fact when I picked up Destroy All Cars at the library, I didn't really even know much about it at all, aside from the fact that it happened to be written by Blake Nelson. And it didn't disappoint me.

Destroy All Cars begins like some bad documentary, ranting and raving about how cars are evil, people are stupid, and basically the world sucks. It turned me off a little in the beginning, because I really have a hard time enjoying books that are preachy. But the style in which it was written had me going right along. (It's made up of essays and journal entries.) And before long, I was sucked right into the world Nelson had created.

James is just such a believable character; every part about him rings true, from his voice to his dark sense of humor; I couldn't get enough. This could be partially because I love his TYPE. Maybe. He had me rooting for him before hardly any time had past (once I got past the first 30 pages or so), and I couldn't wait to find out where James would lead us, where it was down some political war path or trying to rekindle the love he lost.


Now to talk about the plot; it was actually more romantic comedy than political manifesto. True James still holds on to his beliefs about CONSUMER AMERICAN (he always spells it in all caps), but as the plot takes off it becomes clear that it's more of a coming of age story than anything else. It was a darkly entertaining, realistic ride. Maybe not complex enough for some, but complex enough for me.


Overall, I loved Destroy All Cars, and would recommend it to anyone who loves dark comedy in any way, shape, or form.

--Alexis


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