My Fiction Nook: ARC Review: Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks by Nathan Burgoine

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

ARC Review: Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks by Nathan Burgoine

Blurb:

Being the kid abducted by old Ms. Easton when he was four permanently set Cole's status to freak. At seventeen, his exit plan is simple: make it through the last few weeks of high school with his grades up and his head down.

When he pushes through the front door of the school and finds himself eighty kilometers away holding the door of a museum he was just thinking about, Cole faces facts: he's either more deluded than old Ms. Easton, or he just teleported.

Now every door is an accident waiting to happen―especially when Cole thinks about Malik, who, it turns out, has a glass door on his shower. When he starts seeing the same creepy people over his shoulder, no matter how far he's gone, crushes become the least of his worries. They want him to stop, and they'll go to any length to make it happen.

Cole is running out of luck, excuses, and places to hide.

Time for a new exit plan.

Todd's rating:

Wow, I'd never read a book about teleporters, never even *thought* about that particular trope spin, but I suppose there's a first time for everything. : )

I loved the awkward situations that 17 y.o. high school student Cole kept getting himself into, as he accidentally *poofed* himself all over the place, when he wasn't concentrating quite hard enough on where he wanted the current door he was walking through to take him.

And as the story progressed, hearing more about Cole tapping into his gift, how and what it felt like, while he got more familiar with traveling in the blink of an eye, that was some damn decent world-building fun, for sure.

Cole was an extremely-quirky MC, with his general awkwardness and tendency to plan things out in great detail, but he was also very endearing, so I found myself liking him immediately. Picture Maps from the Nash Summers series of the same name, except dialed down a notch or three.

The story felt extremely YA, which I rarely mind; however, I wasn't the biggest fan of how much page time was spent on the Rainbow Club at school and all of the friend drama. All of that ended up feeling like an LGBTQIA Inclusivity 101 Lesson, which started to feel sort of preachy and tedious as a non-noob gay.

After feeling a bit like the teleporting theme had been slightly overshadowed by "everything else", I loved the parts of the book when the mysterious "Colenappers " came out swinging (figuratively) and turned into "Maliknappers" , forcing Cole into a standoff with them, but confronted them on his own terms.

When Cole finally got that steel in his spine, back the hell up, because he was taking no shit anymore, which was pretty awesome to see.

“I’m running on coffee and anger, and I’ve got finals on Monday. I’m so done with you people.”

The book had plenty of humor, but I found it to be more 'chuckles ' funny than TJ Klune'esque "OMG, I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe " funny.

The romance was pretty subdued, as Cole and Malik pussy-footed around one another endlessly, which definitely added to the extremely YA feel that I mentioned. They're adorable together, but I would've liked more talking about feelings than a very quick, "I really like you" and one quick kissing scene before the parental groundings began.

The book ended with a hopeful HFN epilogue from only two weeks down the road, which was very upbeat and I enjoyed a lot, but no real long-term relationship plans were discussed.

I'd rate this book at around 3.75 stars and recommend it to any YA fans who enjoy completely left-field, oddball stories. And yes, that pretty much describes me to a "T".

My ARC copy of the book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.