Review: A Scary Scene In a Scary Movie

Title: A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie

Author: Matt Blackstone

Release Date: July 5, 2011
Format: ARC
Source: macteenbooks
Age Level: Young Adult
My rating:  4 of 5 stars

Pages: 248

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

First line: "Legs are my favorite part."

Goodreads:

Rene, an obsessive-compulsive fourteen year old, smells his hands and wears a Batman cape when he’s nervous. If he picks up a face-down coin, moves a muscle when the time adds up to thirteen (7:42 is bad luck because 7 + 4 + 2 = 13), or washes his body parts in the wrong order, Rene or someone close to him will break a bone, contract a deadly virus, and/or die a slow and painful death like someone in a scary scene in scary movie. Rene’s new and only friend tutors him in the art of playing it cool, but that’s not as easy as Gio makes it sound.

Review
So this is my first review. I received this book through Macteenbook’s Ingroup. When I first received it I had heard very little about it, I think I had seen it in someone's In My Mailbox, but I was excited to read it. Being a psychology major, this book interested me because it is told by a 14 year old with OCD.

The story itself is basically the adventure and coming of age story of a teen living with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Rene knows he has it, owns up to being weird and recognizes all his little quirks. This novel is definitely not the type of book I would pick up on a whim but I'm glad I received a copy. At first I was a little iffy about it but soon found that I couldn't put it down. I needed to find out how Rene's adventure would conclude.

Rene is the main character and even though he is strange, he is also intriguing and you can't help but care about him. All the other characters basically revolve around him. His friend, love interest and family. We get to know Rene's mom and dad through his point of view and also his friend Gio and Ariel, the girl he must marry.

This book is completely different from what I'm used to reading and I think I can safely assume it is different from most books you guys read too. It is different from most YA books out there but will surely have you laughing and intrigued all the way through. Rene is a new young adult book hero.
 
*I received an ARC so anything I quoted may or may not be in the final copy.