Most of the books I have read lately have been from a female’s perspective. Not all, but most. One that comes to mind that had a male character was The Knife of Never Letting Go, but this is a sci-fi type of book and not realistic. This particular book is from the perspective of a high school boy and could be deemed as realistic fiction.

So Finn, the main character is the son of a dad who is a writer and is an epileptic. He also talks in miles versus minutes or hours or inches or pounds…kind of neat, really. His mom was killed by a dead horse and his father remarried to a nurse named Tracy (who he likes). He has a love interest, Julia, who he is like a typical boy and drools over how hot she is. And he has a best friend named Cade who loves to talk about sex and his body parts. It’s quiet humorous really, because that is REALLY how high school boys are (insert eye roll🙄).

Julia ends up moving and Finn is devastated, but his fun friend Cade is there to rescue him. The boys go on a road trip to Oklahoma to look at colleges and end up being heroes in the midst. It begins pouring rain while they are driving, so bad they feel they need to pull over. They watch a car ahead of them spin out and go to help. They realize the van is in a river and Finn does what he has to to help save those in the van.

Click on the image to visit the author’s Amazon page to find more books written by Smith.

Smith, Andrew (2014). 100 sideways miles. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.