Play Me Backwards by Adam Selzer (review)

How to Get Suspended and Influence People (BCCB 5/07) left Leon in a hopeful place: his movie was a big underground hit, and he got his girl, Anna. Since then, though, Anna moved to England, taking with her all of Leon’s motivation and more than half of his confidence, and he’s subsequently had just a few dead-end jobs and a couple of disappointing sexual encounters. He does, however, have a new best friend, a guy named Stan who claims to be Satan; Leon has his doubts, but he’s hedging his bets in case it’s true. When he gets word that Anna might be coming back, he worries that he has become too much of a slacker to live up to her activist standards, so Stan give him a series of assignments that, in the end, actually pan out the way Stan says they will. Many readers will find Leon’s self-deprecating commentary on his own sexual prowess, the snarky descriptions of the goings-on in the back room at his place of employment, and his sardonic assessment of all things suburbia quite funny, but unfortunately nothing much happens in this book. There is a sustained allusion to Moby-Dick, as Leon and his girlfriend quest after the white grape Slushee, and there is the signature Selzer protest move as Leon mobilizes a campaign to protect a Satanic poem he slipped into the yearbook. Despite the heavy issues raised (teen performance anxiety—sexual, intellectual, economic, etc.—as well as a pregnancy scare), however, there is a lack of substance here, and no teens are shown at their best, while many are shown at their worst. There is nonetheless a cunningly worked plot arc, and the humorous narration itself may be enough to satisfy Selzer fans.