[Book] 'SLAM' by Nick Hornby ㅡ 16 and Pregnant? Boy, You're Doomed.

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This novel is about 16-year-old Sam. (Try to remember his age) For a while only good things happened in his life: his single mom finally - finally! - got rid of her pathetic boyfriend, Sam learned new skateboard skills, and he got himself a beautiful girlfriend, Alicia. But just when he thought life couldn't be better, things went haywire.

Sam broke up with his girlfriend, Alicia. Was that a problem? No, those things happen. It was no big deal. Besides, it was not someone dumped someone. They just lost interest in each other, and got separated naturally. What happened next was the problem.

One day, Sam got call from Alicia. She said she was late - her period was three weeks late. What did that mean? Was Alicia suffering from irregular periods? Or was it possible that his girlfriend, no his ex-girlfriend got pregnant? If so, how could he break this news to his mom?

For your information, Sam's mom is 32 years old. (Scroll up again. How old did I tell you Sam was?)

Source: Goodreads

This book is fun to read. It tells you about teenagers, especially regarding their sexual interest and results of reckless behavior in a very funny way.

When it comes to teen-mom/teen-dad, there seems to be two polar point-of-views. One is the dark side about abortion, baby abandonment, or child abuse. The bright side is about how the teen-parents have a special bond with their child like that of a friend, and lead a cool life.

This book shows the mix of those two. Sometimes Sam got depressed and frightened because he thought his whole life was ruined and damaged forever. But other times he became very hopeful that he could pull it off somehow.

Sam enjoyed skateboarding on the concrete street. If you don't concerntrate hard enough, you might end up sliding upon the concrete. The title of this book Slam means that big fall to the concrete, and also the big fall in his life as a teen-dad.

One part I like the best in this book is that it tells you "You can call it a family if there's love." Sam's family might look complicated and not-so-desirable to others: a newborn got a nephew who’s older than her, and two half-brothers with different mothers, and a mum who’s a grandmother, and God knows what else. And yet Sam's mom says plainly.

“Why is it a mess?”she said.
...
“It’s just a family, isn’t it?”

Sam tells the whole story in the first person, so you can peek inside of a teenager and see what he thinks about his life, love and sex.It's fun to read for adults, but I also want to recommend this book to, of course, teenagers.

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Title: SLAM
Author: Nick Hornby