REVIEW for Dirtbags

TITLE: Dirtbags

AUTHOR: Teresa McWhirter

DATE: November 2007

GENRE: YA

Rating: 2 stars

PUBLISHER SITE: www.anvilpress.net

I received this book from www.minibookexpo.com

I am a fan of young adult fiction and I am a particular fan of YA with social messages. So it was with great enthusiasm that I started reading Dirtbags, written by Teresa McWhirter.

Unfortunately, as I kept reading, it became apparent to me that this book would not be a great read for me.

The book opens up with a very brief description of the living situation of our main character Spider McKenzie. Spider now lives with an elderly and extremely eccentic aunt who loves gambling - and, of course, does not really care about Spider - her niece.

Anxious to get away, she starts renting an apartment, in an extremely seedy part of town, with some other people, including a character named Blue.

The novel then proceeds to detail, for us, all of the misguided, crazy, illegal and immature things these young people actually put themselves , each other and other people through. There are lots of drugs, booze, sweating, screaming and general upheaval.

I am sorry, but this story was depressing, which would have been fine, except the whole thing felt so contrived and the characters were all so horrible, that it just felt as though the whole thing was wayyyyyyy over the top.

I have no problem with main characters who steal or do drugs, etc. if it is going to do something for the storyline - but in Dirtbags, I felt as though the author used every gimmick possible and then turned around and claimed it was about "growing up".

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me at all.