The Nerdy and the Dirty

Benedict Maximus Pendleton is a pretentious straight-A student, robotically literal-minded and obsessed with (the appearance of) perfection--understandably, as his similarly unemotional psychiatrist father is the author of the bestseller Being a Perfect Person. Though she's "a stoner and a loser," according to Benedict, Penelope Lupo is really an emotionally and intellectually repressed Catholic girl who is tired of faking normalcy. (And who, we learn in her first chapter, "masturbate[s] a ton.") That these two teens, equally neurotic but in very different ways, go on to fall in love over winter break at a Wisconsin resort should feel ludicrous, but that we wholly buy it when they do is thanks to Gottfred's (Forever for a Year, rev. 7/15) nuanced characterizations. The personalities brewing underneath the characters' façades ultimately complement each other perfectly. Penelope admires that Benedict says exactly what he means, and she learns to do the same; Benedict sees in Penelope a kind of intelligence he never knew existed. There's (again) a lot of sex in Gottfred's sophomore novel, but his approach to teenage sexuality is refreshing: it's the authenticity that comes from understanding how teens think and feel and, importantly, the respect he has for teens' sexual and romantic experiences; for their right to enjoy those experiences. Readers will cheer as these two endearing, unique, and believably voiced characters learn to finally be real--with themselves, with each other, and with the world. katrina hedeen

Benedict Maximus Pendleton is a pretentious straight-A student. "Stoner and loser" Penelope Lupo is a repressed Catholic girl. That these two teens, equally neurotic but in very different ways, fall in love should feel ludicrous, but that we wholly buy it when they do is thanks to Gottfred's nuanced characterizations and the refreshing respect he has for teens' sexual and romantic experiences.