The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys (review)

As if being a straightlaced virgin didn't make his life hard enough already, sixteen-year-old Charlie has just found out that his mom is marrying her ferrety boyfriend, Rick the Accountant. A bad day gets worse as a love note in Tessa Boone's locker, an angry bully, and a joyride in the principal's '67 Mustang propel Charlie into an unexpected road trip. Charlie's ex-best friend Jake (he unapologetically trashed Charlie's beloved Game Boy) decides they should visit Charlie's long-absent father in Denver, but the trip doesn't turn out as either of them expected. In a bizarre chain of events, Charlie accidentally shoots and kills a twenty-year-old man and, when Jake tries to take the rap for the crime, faces a daunting dilemma. Teen-guy road-trip clichés are plentiful here, including fast cars, hot girls, pranks, and parental strife, but there is also surprising nuance in the shades of gray behind the good-kid/bad-kid duality that has pigeonholed Charlie and Jake. At the point of the dramatic shooting, however, the previously lighthearted romp turns jarringly into an ethical examination that doesn't get fully explored—fewer than twenty pages are devoted to the subsequent arrest and trials, including a flash forward to Jake and Charlie's lives as adults. Though the story is uneven, readers may still appreciate the laugh-out-loud moments and the insights into the teen-guy sensibility, its camaraderie, and its codes of honor.