“It’s in my interests to know about my parents’ mental problems,” he reasons.
His objectives? Uncovering the secrets behind his parents’ teetering marriage, unraveling the mystery that is his alluring and equally quirky classmate Jordana Bevan, and understanding where he fits in among the pansexuals, Zoroastrians, and other mystifying, fascinating beings in his orbit. At once a self-styled social scientist, a spy in the baffling adult world surrounding him, and a budding, hormone-driven emotional explorer, Oliver is stealthily (and perhaps a bit more nervously than he’d ever admit) nosing his way forward through the murky and uniquely perilous waters of adolescence. (Apr.The dryly precocious, soon-to-be-fifteen-year-old hero of this engagingly offbeat debut novel, Oliver Tate lives in the seaside town of Swansea, Wales. Some readers will be turned off by Oliver’s cruelty-among other things, he bullies an overweight girl at school and poisons Jordana’s dog-and others by his precociousness (his log entries include word-of-the-day vocab lessons), but Dunthorne’s creation is a true original. As Oliver and Jordana’s relationship plays out and the truth about Oliver’s mother is revealed, Oliver takes some lumps and learns a few lessons. Oliver also believes his mother is having an affair with a family friend, and his growing suspicion leads to a half-baked investigation that only complicates matters at home. The two become inseparable and eventually wind up together in the sack. Fixated on the personal lives of his parents and neighbors, Oliver compulsively keeps a log of his observations, activities and thoughts, many of which revolve around his new girlfriend, Jordana, she of the fully developed breasts and snogging experience. Growing up in Swansea, Wales, Oliver Tate is curious about everything going on around him.
Welsh-born Dunthorne delves in his debut into the mind of a troubled 14-year-old boy obsessed with his virginity, his parent’s failing marriage and the dictionary.
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