21

Publishers Weekly

Iversen's debut novel has a familiar-sounding setup: Bret Stanton seems like a typical fraternity guy, with his good looks and party lifestyle, but through flashbacks readers see a misfit kid who was willing to sacrifice everything to fit in. Bret is turning 21 the same night as his fraternity's big party, and he is determined to live up to the Pi Alpha Kappa (PAK) "tradition" of drinking 21 "units of alcohol" in one night. But as the evening wears on and Bret gets progressively drunker, events start to spin out of control: he has sex with a random freshman girl, evades police when a prank goes wrong and stands by as his PAK pledges kick and humiliate a rival who later requires hospitalization. As night becomes morning, he tries to break out of the shell he's created for himself, but it may be too late. The exchanges between the characters have an empty, but realistic ring (a girl at the party complains that she got fired from Pacific Outfitters for having "bad PPT" or "pants per transaction"), and readers will be shocked by the depth of callousness in the world that Bret has chosen to embrace-from the colored beer cups his brothers use to rank partygoers, to a horrific rape, to betraying their friends. The plot takes some creative turns, but frequent flashbacks derail the momentum, and some readers may ultimately be turned off by the author's heavy touches, especially the over-the-top finale. Ages 16-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

KLIATT

Universities seem to be taking an interest in putting a stop to drinking excesses on campus, but not fast enough. As this tale opens, the college is about to close Pi Alpha Kappa (PAK) down but the good old frat boys want to bring down the house with one final alcoholic bomb of a night, and the perfect excuse is Bret's 21st birthday. One of the fraternity's lame traditions is that a brother has to down 21 units of liquor on his 21st birthday. Yahoo! Apparently, the author, a college-aged writer, is telling this tale based on firsthand experience. In this debut novel he tells a frightening story that should make parents, school officials, and students take notice. The hero, Brett, takes stock of his life as he swims through the frat drinking tradition, and he finds that things are coming up rather soggy. The novel is humorous and provocative and though some may argue otherwise, young people should read it. There's sex and violence and drinking—but high schoolers and college kids are aware of all this (sometimes more aware than parents would like to think about)—and a read that makes kids think about the world they are in and perhaps make better decisions regarding their behavior is worth the risk. KLIATT Codes: A—Recommended for advanced students and adults. 2005, Simon & Schuster, 261p., Ages 17 to adult.
—Joseph DeMarco

School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up-Bret's 21st birthday coincides with the night of his fraternity's biggest bash of the year. The tradition is for members to do a celebratory 21 shots. Through a series of flashbacks, Bret tries to make sense of his present life, the choices he has made, and the choices made for him. A nocturnal trek takes him from his fraternity house across campus and back to the house, which brings him full circle both physically and spiritually. This book is peppered with explicit language, drinking, and sex. However, readers are given realistic and sometimes moving insight into one young man's spiritual soul searching. Even though the setting is a college in California, the message is universal.-Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Sparse, artsy language illustrates partier Bret's 21st birthday. Fraternity tradition requires that Bret celebrate with 21 drinks. Popular and wealthy Bret is unhappy, and heavily segued flashbacks explain: He's at loose ends academically and his business-focused parents don't care about him. Alas, though at heart he's intellectual (a genius astronomer despite his seven-year neglect of scholarship) and a nice guy who volunteers in the projects, Bret's chosen a path of jackass debauchery in order to be liked. He drinks constantly, treats girls as interchangeable sex objects and supervises the near-fatal beating of a rival fraternity's pledge. Between drinks, he roams campus, musing faux-poetically on his wasted life and orbiting the observatory that represents his losses. Though Bret's on the verge of redemption, he falls tragically victim to the inexcusably dangerous Greek system. There ought to be irony in the contrast between the flowing imagery of Bret's stream of consciousness, the spare dialogue (oddly lacking question marks) and the hyped-up excitement of a fraternity of alcoholics. Instead, there's only choppy prose for a disaffected protagonist. (Fiction. YA)