The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle
2.5 out of 5 stars.

“That’s actually the most confusing part about being alive without knowing the end of your own hero’s journey. You never know if it’s time to go home or head into battle. You never know if you’ve already faced your biggest monster.”

Goodreads Description: Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry used to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister Annabeth. Of course, that was all before—before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa…and before Annabeth was killed in a car accident. Enter Geoff, Quinn’s best friend who insists it’s time that Quinn came out—at least from hibernation. One haircut later, Geoff drags Quinn to his first college party, where instead of nursing his pain, he meets a guy—a hot one—and falls hard. What follows is an upside-down week in which Quinn begins imagining his future as a screenplay that might actually have a happily-ever-after ending—if, that is, he can finally step back into the starring role of his own life story.

This may be a short post, because I’m not really sure what to say about this book and I even struggled with how to rate it. I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t love it. I went back and forth throughout the book on whether I wanted to finish it or not. I wasn’t a huge fan of any of the characters in the book. I honestly did not like Quinn all that much. He seemed whiny to me and really annoying. Geoff gave off the vibe that he was even over his best friend Quinn at times too.

I felt like the story was lacking A LOT. There really wasn’t too much there. It was good at times, it had it’s moments. I just wasn’t blown away by it. I felt like it could have been so much better than it actually was. I can’t even pinpoint what was missing, but there was just not enough of a good story. There actually wasn’t a lot of a story, to be honest. I expected a lot was going to happen, because the description makes it seem like there is going to be a lot going on. An “upside-down week”…I’m thinking there will be lots of crazy things going on. That really wasn’t the case, at least not to me.

Overall, it was just okay. It did have it’s good moments and it was funny at times. I just couldn’t really connect with the characters and I didn’t really like them all that much. They weren’t really likable to me, especially the MC Quinn. The story was just lacking substance, it fell really flat at times, and it just wasn’t for me.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think?

I hope you have a great Friday!