Jesse or more popularly known as “Sway” is your super sleek high school super hero without superpowers except for his innate coolness and unrivaled wit, everybody either wants to be friends with him or wants to be him. He is the man of every hour, the guy you go to when you want the impossible to happen.
– Student body president has to raise funds? Pay Sway.
– School Principal needs a problem student kicked out? Pay Sway.
I’m sure you get the idea. Sway is always in his element, always carefree and chill until he takes on a job for Ken, the popular football player- to get this beautiful, elusive, dream girl and Jesse’s entire “sway” attitude suddenly becomes compromised when he gets to meet and know the wonderful Bridget.
Written in a very straightforward but very insightful and hilarious style and told in this raw and unfiltered voice of a troubled teenage boy, I find myself liking a supposedly unlikeable character more and more as the plot progresses. I love the accidental relationships and friendships he’s made especially with Mr. Dunkelman and Pete and I appreciate the development of his character as the narrative slowly divulges that deep within, Jesse really is just a nice guy who actually wants to do good things for deserving people out of the goodness of his heart.
I think the plot managed to have not only diverse characters but themes as well. It covertly addresses issues like stereotyping, racialism, physical discrimination and even sexism in a just a little over 300 pages. It’s indeed a wonderful and unique debut novel. It always surprises me how I couldn’t predict books I’ll end up giving five stars. I’m definitely Swayed. 😉
Lovely review Ate! Diverse books are so good! 😊
Thank you so much, Lovely Nicay! ^^