Review: Drugs, Friends, Lust and the Pain of High School
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2014
“Sevag’s High School Male-o-Drama” is the story of Sevag Hopefulian’s first year of high school—after being labeled “special education” and made fun of for his entire school life, it’s his chance to go mainstream.But now he’s in class with the same people he attended middle school with, and he finds himself still the butt of jokes—though slowly but surely he begins to make friends despite himself. Along the way, he falls in love with two girls—one who thinks he’s a college student and another who leans on him in the aftermath of a cheating boyfriend—experiments with drugs, and is pulled into a group project that proves a turning point in his academic experience.Sevag is definitely an interesting character—you get a very strong sense that he can be friendly, and even charming, but he’s so apathetic from years of being bullied that he holds himself back, sabotaging himself by doing things like circling random answers on tests to get it over with, taking ecstasy, and using sarcasm as a weapon. Despite his choices, though, Sevag has a smart and funny voice and you like him; you enjoy experiencing the year with him, and pull for him in his first romances; he’s at times disaffected and unwillingly invested in others’ drama, but you see a big change in him over the course of the book. The plot hits the normal experiences of high school—friends, sex, grades—but the main character is what keeps you invested and makes the story so readable.Recommended to readers who enjoy coming-of-age novels with a sometimes acerbic wit, as well as novels focused on characterization.