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Review
The 'facing up to responsibility' theme is beautifully explored, but the real pleasure is in the asides: the misunderstandings, the flashes of humour; the things we mean as opposed to the things we say. This wise and humane book will stretch most teenage boys, in a good way.
--The Telegraph

Sunday Times, October 7, 2007
'Truthful and Funny' --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

38 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

Average Customer Review

3.0 out of 5 stars (38 customer reviews)

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nick Hornby could write this in his sleep. And it seems that he did, 24 Jun 2008

By	tybalt-quin (London, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I expected more from Nick Hornby in his first YA book. The subject of teen pregnancy has been done to death but there isn't a great deal out there that looks at it from the father-to-be's angle and it's something that ties in with Hornby's perennial theme of men (read: teenage boys) finally being forced to take responsibility and display maturity. A writer of Hornby's talent could write a book about that in his sleep and it seems that he did.

Sam has a stereotypical background (raised by a single mother who had him whilst herself a teenager and emotionally distant from his father). The central character device of having him talk to a Tony Hawk poster reminded me of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM but Hornby has researched skater terminology and slang and Sam's relationship with his friends is entertaining.

However the book suffers because Hornby wants Sam to be a bit of everything. He's inarticulate about his own feelings but is perceptive as to the emotions of those around him and explains them. It's a tension that does not come off. Hornby makes a lot of Sam's wanting to be a good dad, but it comes too late in the text for it to have the emotional impact it needs.

I didn't believe in his relationship with the middle-class Alicia as it's unclear what she saw in him other than that he was there and a way of getting at her snobby parents. Alicia is two-dimensional (all we learn is that she wants to be a model and is a little arrogant) and it's disappointing that Hornby avoids any discussion of her aborting the baby as this could have led to some interesting emotional development on both her and Sam's part.

Hornby's time-travel device is a problem. He hedges on whether it is actually happening, which makes it difficult to suspend disbelief in these scenes. Although he uses them to move the story forward, the fact that we later have Sam reliving them (albeit slightly differently) makes them too repetitive.

The book's events feel clich�d. Sam runs the checklist of fleeing his problems, reluctantly confronting them and having everything turn out all right in the end and it's dull reading. Hornby throws in some funny lines and scenes but it's not enough to salvage a blah novel that fails to innovate on the subject matter.

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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Too Young, 17 Oct 2007

By	A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Slam (Hardcover)

I've been a huge fan of Hornby's since the early days, including his non-fiction, and this step into YA lit feels totally natural. After all, so many of his protagonists (including himself) are young men struggling to come to terms with adulthood and the responsibilities of "growing up." Here, the dilemma is much the same, however it's much more direct, and instead of a young man grappling adulthood, it's a teenage boy grappling with the implications of a monumental adult responsibility.

I'm guessing there have been a number of good YA books about teen pregnancy -- and if that's the case, add this one to the list. The simple story is narrated by 18-year-old North London lad Sam, reflecting back over the past two years. While it's pretty bare bones -- the cast doesn't really extend beyond Sam, his girlfriend, their respective parents, and two skater acquaintances -- things are made livelier though the device of having Sam discuss his problems with a poster of legendary pro skater Tony Hawk (whose responses are passages Sam has memorized from Hawk's autobiography). There are also a few jumps into dream sequence/time-travel which break up the straightforward narrative, although they don't actually add up to that much.

The book's real strength comes from Hornby's ability to capture the inner life of a teenage boy while avoiding all the usual pitfalls. Sam is neither too articulate nor too dense, and he's basically a well-adjusted, pleasant teen who hasn't gotten into any trouble -- until now. His narrative is full Hornby's trademark observational wit, although without nearly as many pop culture trappings as usual. The book certainly carries a cautionary message about teen sex, but it's never hectoring or reductionist. There's a strong sense of hopefulness for Sam, despite the deep hole he's dug himself. It's not an amazing book, but certainly a cut above the average.

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What was that all about?, 3 Jul 2008

By	Will Joseph "Universal adventurer - travellin... (The universe is my oyster.) - See all my reviews

I've just finished Slam and wonder why I bothered. This book jumps about from one thing to another and never really lets you know what it is supposed to be doing. I thought it was about a skater; he skates probably three times in the whole thing. I thought he spoke to Tony Hawk; he does this too infrequently for what I thought was the main focus of the book. Then he gets a girlfriend pregnant and then he starts time travelling would you believe? Then he moves to Hastings and we are introduced to a whole new range of characters who stary the course for about a minute - this after we have been introduced to his friends in some detail who occupy less than nothing in the story.
I'm going to get a glass of warm milk and have lie down. Maybe I can forget spending my precious reading time on this debacle.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars It's good but is it good enough?
Nick Hornby is an uneven writer. His talent is in writing teenaged characters, and yet he also insists on writing adult fiction. Read more

Published 9 days ago by N. Mott

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't be put off by the "skating" requirement
Contrary to the review printed on its cover Slam is not a funny book, it's an amusing book with some funny bits in it. Read more

Published 1 month ago by G. Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars should be made clearer that this is for young adults
I saw this book in the general fiction section and assumed it was similar to Nick Hornby's other novels. Read more

Published 2 months ago by H. Seymour

3.0 out of 5 stars The Woes of Teenage Parenthood
Athough I enjoyed reading this witty insight into teenage parenthood I did feel that maybe Hornby had written this for young adults. Read more

Published 5 months ago by LindyLouMac

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid effort
Not quite as good as his 'adult' books but boy did this scare the crap out of me, of what could have been if I'd screwed up in my teens like the main character.

Published 5 months ago by shortround

1.0 out of 5 stars Devistatingly bad DONT BUY IT
ahhh what can i say. after fever pitch was looking foward to this. But it was really poor. DONT BUY IT

Published 6 months ago by M. I. Morris

4.0 out of 5 stars A satisfying read
A very readable, short and sweet novel about a teenage pregnancy, told from the father's perspective. I'm bemused to see others have taken such a dislike to it. Read more

Published 6 months ago by alias_gill

3.0 out of 5 stars Average Hornby
I was quite surprised to see the diversity and strength of feeling that this book has generated from Amazon reviewers. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Oldevers

1.0 out of 5 stars One star for audacity . . . .
There is so much great literature; and so little time in which to read it! But this? Hornby's barbarous twaddle is as befitting to a shelf of good books as a pustule is to a... Read more

Published 6 months ago by von Schlupfwinkel

5.0 out of 5 stars Adults these days...
First of all I'd like to say that this is one of the best books I've ever read. It reads like real life, you get emotionally attached to the characters and it's just so well... Read more

Published 7 months ago by V. Eley

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	77% buy the item featured on this page: Slam 3.0 out of 5 stars (38) �4.46
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