Review - "The Boy Most Likely To"

The Boy Most Likely To
by Huntley Fitzpatrick
rating:☆☆☆
published: 9th June 2016
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

It’s not rocket science, Nan. You show someone they matter to you—do whatever it takes to show that.

Galley provided by publisher.

This is the first book by Huntley Fitzpatrick that I have read, and I enjoyed it well enough. At first glance, it doesn't seem that much different to every other contemporary young adult book, but it definitely deals with heavier themes than most of them, and that was refreshing.

I've not read many YA books that deal with themes like alcoholism and teen pregnancy (in fact, I can only call to mind one, which is Malorie Blackman's Boys Don't Cry, though I've not read it). What I found a little irritating was that it turned out that Hester was actually lying about it being Tim's kid. It kind of seemed like just a way of getting Hester and Cal out of Tim's life, so he's no longer got to be responsible and he and Alice can not worry about it all.

I did like the theme of family in this book, with Tim's family being awful and pretty unsupportive, while Alice's family was the complete opposite and at the same time, providing Tim with almost a surrogate family. To be honest, family is one of my favourite themes in books (especially found families).

Beyond that, it pretty much followed the formula of all such books, which I guess I signed up for by reading it, but equally gets a little tedious. Not to mention it was almost 500 pages long, and I don't really have that much patience for long books at the moment. There were probably parts that could have been shortened, that didn't really add to the story, but I read it quick enough that I wasn't too bothered by them.