Slam-- a review by Justin Chang

Slam
by: Nick Hornby

*** stars

Sam is a troubled sixteen years old skateboarder. His idol is Tony Hawk and he even has a poster of Tony Hawk on the wall which he thinks that it’s the best birthday present ever. Sam has two best friends: Rabbit and Rubbish. Rabbit has excellent skating skills and very intelligent and he is almost a professional skater, this is how good he is at skating. There is Sam’s other best friend Rubbish, he is horrible at skating but he is very smart and humorous. Sam has a divorced mom Annie Jones, she had Sam when she was only sixteen years old and now she is only thirty-two years old. Sam and his mom get along together. Annie tries to talk about anything with his son as possible as she can so Sam wouldn’t make the same mistake that his dad made with her. One day, Sam and his mom went to a birthday party which was thrown by Annie’s co-worker, Andrea Burns who is a counselor and also mother of Alicia Burns. Alicia is very gorgeous but she uses her look just to play with boys. So, Sam meets Alicia at the birthday party and Sam and Alicia kind of stand awkward at first time but within a few weeks they start dating together and this is when everything goes wrong. In one encounter, Sam ejaculates inside her while he is not wearing a protection. Do you think Alicia will get rid of the baby? Do you think Sam and Alicia will continue their relationship? Well…Let’s find out!

Even though I don’t like dealing about teen pregnancy, this is totally awesome book deals well with the subject of teen pregnancy and the issues that pertain to it. The author, Nick Hornby shows readers the physcological, social, and economical effects of teen pregnancy in a new way. I would recommend this book to any girls or guys who are interested in teenage pregnancy or anyone who wants to know how life would be when you have your own child at age sixteen. This book is a fiction and it’s about teenage pregnancy.