14. The New Rules of High School

The New Rules of High School (Blake Nelson, 2004)

This one's kind of more of the same Portland teen disaffection from Blake Nelson. It is a little different in that Max, the protagonist, is an overachieving good kid instead of a confused alternateen. The indie rock club element is there, but Max exists in the periphery of that scene. He's kind of a jerk, and there are some consequences for that, but it's not moralistic. Nelson is really good at capturing the awfulness of being a teenager and offering a little slice of a kid's life without making it too plot-driven. The little epilogue was kind of lame, though. I don't need to know what happens after Max graduates. I've always liked being left hanging a bit in Nelson's other books.