Rotten -- Michael Northrop

I love this cover. I love that the dog is smiling, but I find it especially hilarious that the canine model got the same no-eyes treatment that the girls on so many other YA books get. (Sometimes it really doesn't take much to get me going. Small minds, simple pleasures, I guess.)

Sixteen-year-old Jimmer "JD" Dobbs gets back to town after spending the summer "upstate" with "his aunt", and walks into to house only to discover that his mother has introduced a new member to the family: an abused Rottweiler she rescued from death row at the animal shelter. Due to supremely bad treatment from his previous owner, Jon-Jon (now named Johnny Rotten, JR for short) is especially skittish around men, but JD uses JR's new-found love of pizza rolls (and long walks) to win his trust, and eventually they begin to get into a comfortable groove.

Shortly thereafter, though, their new relationship is threatened, and JR's life—not to mention the entire Dobbs household—is suddenly in jeopardy again.

Things I loved about Rotten:

1. As in Gentlemen, Northrop focuses on a subset of boys not often depicted in YA: bright, but not necessarily academically inclined; more likely to spend a day playing videogames or watching crap tv or trying to get their hands on alcohol than, like, doing an art project or planning an elaborate date to win over a girl or volunteering at a soup kitchen or working on the school paper; working class rather than affluent; more metalhead than hipster.

2. He does an especially nice job with the characterization and backstory of Mars: interestingly, despite his pivotal role, he actually doesn't get a whole lot of screen time. In another book, he could have just come off simply as a villain or a dirtbag. He's from a... shall we say, litigious family (every small town has at least one), and he's portrayed fairly, but empathetically. 

3. The descriptions of JR are fabulous. JD's voice is flawless, and never falters—it's clear that he's never had a dog, and doesn't know much about them—but his descriptions of JR's behavior and facial expressions are TIP-TOP PERFECT.

4. I loved JD's friendship with Rudy, and I loved Aaron's take on Mars. I also loved that, as in Chris Crutcher's Whale Talk, there is a romance subplot, but that while it's very important to JD, it's totally secondary to the main storyline, and so it never feels extraneous or shoehorned in. (See this post for the other end of the spectrum.)

5. The dialogue. Is killer. Real, believable, and at some points, so funny that I had to reenact bits of it for Josh. (The scene where JD finally explains where he was over the summer—and why—had us in tears.)

More easily accessible and not quite as gritty as Gentleman, but still realistic and truthful. But I know that the burning question in your mind—it was the one in mine, at any rate—is probably this: IS THIS A CRYING BOOK? Well, that's a pretty major spoiler. So I shall leave the answer to that question in the comments section.

Full disclosure: I talked beer with the author at Kidlit Drink Night at the most recent Kidlitcon. I'm pretty sure that conversation didn't affect my ability to be impartial—though it's very true that my love of Gentlemen probably already makes me a fangirl—but it's worth a mention.

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Author page.

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Amazon.

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Book source: Review copy from the publisher.

Comments

[Leila]

Nope, it's not. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

[Eliza]

Phew. But I think I knew that since it was featured in the (ever expanding) Pets Who Do Not Die list. But now that there's confirmation, I'll have to check it out. I like the description of JD and that he's not your stock YA male character.

[Ruby]

I do ask that before I'll rent a movie. "Does the dog die? Oh, you don't know?... So, yeah... what about that popcorn special, huh?"
Looks like a good book, though.