May 1, 2012 by Thomas Nelson
Hardcover, 352 Pages
Review Copy
Sam Hopkins, a normal, sixteen year old teen wants more than anything to just fit in with his peers. He longs to be on the track team and capture the heart of a pretty popular girl. He longs for once to just be Sam. The kids at his school are nice enough, but they never really let him in or make him feel like another kid in the group. Sam doesn't fit in with the popular kids or really any of the kids because of who his father is....a pastor at a local church in the community. Always labeled as the mood killing PK {Pastors Kid} no one is ever real and everyone is overly polite afraid that they cant be themselves around the ministers son. Everyone expects one hundred percent from Sam and everyone expects him to do the right thing, except for the bullies, those guys just hit and knock Sam around. Which is how the book opens up, Sam being chased by bullies and standing up to them out of anger. It shocks and impresses the leader so much that he wants Sam in the group. Attempting to be anything other than what he's been labeled, Sam winds up making friends with them and joining in the band of dangerous boys. Thieves and all around trouble makers who steal cars, participate in illegal activities and have really no aspirations for a good future. Everything a PK kid needs to avoid.....and everything that screams rebellion.
During this time, which Sam calls the biggest mistake of his life, he gets deeper into the crimes and finds him self doing things that he knows is wrong and drifting further away from his Pk status. He also winds up meeting Jennifer, the sister of one of the guys in the group and life takes a spin into the unknown when he stands up for her against a bully at school. Jennifer herself is mentally ill and is constantly plagued by visions and voices in her head, that we later learn are demons taunting her. Compounded by her mental illness, Jennifer's hallucinations are terribly frightening and horrific to live with. her mother is frustrated with her, her brother while supportive just doesn't understand, that's why its such a God send when Sam comes into her life, he's the first close friend she's ever had and with that trust shes able to share and connect with him about what shes seeing. When Jennifer's visions start revealing some frightening premonitions of the future, Sam decides to help her figure things out and dares to become the hero that stops the madness about to take place, but at what cost and who will believe him when no one will listen?
Crazy Dangerous was a fun, fast and sometimes really weird read. For me personally I loved Klavan's voice and how he was able to create a young male protagonist that fit the age perfectly. While I liked the actual plot of Crazy Dangerous, the story itself was very youth driven and a tad juvenile for the YA I normally do read. Granted I think this book will be a wonderful addition to the middle grade audience, I wouldn't recommend it to adults. Crazy Dangerous has a profound message of right verses wrong, evil verses good and the lengths of true friendship.
Rating
Recommended to kids and teens 12&up and contains: Violence, bullying, mental disorders,frightening hallucinations, faith aspects and use of demonic activity.
3.5/5- YA-Inspy Thriller
Thanks to Thomas Nelson and Litfuse for Review Copy
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Love that this one has a male protagonist, but it does sound like it might be a little on the young side for me. I tend to gravitate toward the YA books that are a little more mature in nature:) And did I read correctly that there's demonic activity in this one? I thought you steered clear of demons the way I do zombies:)
ReplyDeleteYes there is some demon stuff, but its a Christian book so the demons were in context to the faith aspects...no my hot demon lover is so hot and wants me stuff going on....LOL those are the type of books I try to avoid, anything that had witches, warlocks or demons as characters. That is so funny that zombies bother you but they are fun to me.....and demons bother me but are ok for you....:D
Delete"and sometimes really weird read."
ReplyDeleteLOL! I don't know about this one. Sam's turn to temptation and Jennifer's mental illness kind of makes it seem like this book should be divided up into two different stories. So, yeah, I'm getting where the weird comes in.
Its for real a great story for the 12-15 crowd. It was even a tad scary....the demon whispers to jennifer got a little freaky.....:)
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