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Reviewed by:
  • Kill All Happies by Rachel Cohn
  • Deborah Stevenson
Cohn, Rachel Kill All Happies. Hyperion, 2017 [288p]
Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4231-5722-9 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4847-1953-4 $10.99
Reviewed from galleys         Ad Gr. 9-12

Senior year is ending, and Vic (short for Victoria) Navarro is celebrating by running the most epic senior year party ever. Bev Happie, soon to be the former owner of the now-closed Happies restaurant and theme park that drew aficionados (also known as "Happies") from across the country for decades, gives Vic permission to use the restaurant and grounds for a legendary sendoff of the beloved venue as well as Vic's class. What was supposed to be a modest rave with a beer-vending van (the Chug Bug) and an opportunity for Vic to finally consummate the deed with her long-term crush turns into wide-scale chaos when a literal busload of Happies (as well as a motorcycle-riding branch of the fandom) crash Vic's do and bust it wide open. This is essentially a party movie on the page, from the snapshot takes on the scheming and drunken teen characters to the adult buzzkill antagonist (Miss Ann Thrope, a former Miss Happie and current high school teacher). As such, there's definitely raucous appeal in the blowout, the destruction, and the illicit nocturnal adventure in an abandoned amusement park. However, the small bits of plot—drama with Vic's friends, questions as to what Vic's doing after graduation—are largely clumsily tacked on, and there's little to vary the pace of or give narrative arc to the nonstop revelry. Still, it's a bawdy and colorful outing that may draw fans of Bridesmaids and Broad City.

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