Yee, Lisa The Kidney Hypothetical, 266 pgs. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2015. $17.99.
Language: R (81 swears, 16 deity, 4 "f's", other mildly crude
language) ; Mature Content: PG-13 (drinking, smoking) ; Violence:
PG.
In just seven days, Higgs Boson Bing will graduate from high school
and he is on top of the world. He has been accepted to Harvard, has won
many of the top awards at school, is dating Roo, one of the prettiest, most
popular girls at school, and is pretty sure he has the Senior of the Year award
in the bag. Then everything falls apart. When his girlfriend asks
him a hypothetical question -- would you give me one of your kidneys -- he
doesn't answer yes because it's just a hypothetical question. He has no
idea that one comment will start the beginning of one of the worst weeks in his
life. Everything goes wrong from Roo storming off to some serious
harassment at school to Harvard calling to re-evaluate his acceptance.
And his family seems to be falling apart. Then he meets Monarch.
She won't tell him her real name, but he finds her compelling and interesting
and she makes him question what he really wants and who he is trying to make
happy.
On one hand, I
enjoyed this book, read it in one sitting and found it quite amusing. On
the other hand, there were several things that seemed over the top. Does
your girlfriend of two years, cry , stomp off and not speak to you again
because you won't hypothetically give her a kidney? Do you experience
such vitriol from your classmates because of it? Does the administration
at school really treat you with such disdain and act as though you are getting
what you deserve? If they truly believed Higgs didn't deserve the things
that he achieved, why wait until his very last week of high school to let him
know? I thought Higgs was likeable, not perfect, but he did learn a few
things about himself, and there is a satisfying end to the story.
HS – OPTIONAL. Reviewer: RB
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