Maybe

Title: Maybe
Author: Brent Bunton
Pub: 2006; Alfred Knopf
Pages: 196
Genre: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction

This book was a stumble upon at a Border's close-out sale and perhaps the best stumble I've ever made.  In three syllables - Ah-May-Zing!

The narrator is a BOY.  And it's not done in those hokey alternating passages where one can barely determine there's been a shift of character except now all of a sudden you're in someone else's head but with the same voice.  Oy vey doesn't that bug others?! Nope this is a male narrator and it's RAW.

And often I was incredulous.  Really, guys.  Do you really think about sex on the first date?

Brian (said dude who thinks about sex and mostly acts like a punk but every now and again shows us that he's just angsty) is sixteen and is dealing with the loss of his older brother.  Oh yeah, and he's at a new school.

The story isn't any different than other coming of age tales (yes, I did just use that term) but rather it's the PRESENTATION.  Brian takes us through his day to day antics and thoughts, often random and fragmented and selfish.  There's not really a beginning or an ending and there's not much of an AHA moment, although he does have a necessary breakdown.

It's just REAL.  It's the REALIST teen book I've read in quite some time.

(Also, I don't think that this book has been read enough.  I couldn't find anything out there. #shame)