KING OF THE SCREWUPS
K. L. Going
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Fiction
ISBN: 9780152062583
320 pages

Liam Geller is Mr. Popularity. His good looks and stellar social abilities make him loved by everyone at school. He might not get the best grades or always do the right things, but there’s something about his personality that makes people want to be with him. At home, however, it’s a different story. Everything Liam does seems to anger his CEO father, who is constantly on his case telling him that popularity won’t get him far in life.

Then Liam does something that angers his father so much that he is kicked out of the house. Liam’s mother, an ex-fashion model, agrees with her husband --- because she doesn’t have much of a choice. Liam is shipped off to upstate New York to live with his gay, glam rocker, DJ uncle (aka “Aunt Pete”) until he can straighten himself out. He finally has a chance to change and prove to his father that he’s not just Mr. Popular. At a new school, Liam tries to reinvent himself as Mr. Unpopularity and hopes that maybe then he won’t screw up so much.

But even when he casts aside his designer threads and tries to dress in Aunt Pete’s weird t-shirts, the popular kids still want to hang out with him. Everyone at school adores his oddball ways and the fact that he’s the son of a famous ex-fashion model. Everyone, that is, except a girl named Darleen, who lives in the same trailer park as his uncle. Darleen is a loner artsy girl who instantly resents Liam’s quick and easy ability to make friends. This only adds fire to Liam’s mission to become unpopular. He doesn’t care about winning over the friendship of the football players or cheerleaders. Instead, he wants Darleen to like him.

Liam’s plan to become unpopular and succeed in academics proves harder and harder, which makes him feel defeated about his ability to ever impress his father. Will this King of the Screwups ever straighten out?

KING OF THE SCREWUPS is a touching, funny novel about a character you can’t help but love and feel sorry for at the same time. The flashback scenes from Liam’s childhood weave in nicely with the flow of the story and open new windows of understanding into his character. K. L. Going, author of FAT KID RULES THE WORLD and SAINT IGGY, once again proves her masterful ability to paint a realistic teen voice with depth and emotion that makes the story become so alive. His cross-dressing relative, “Aunt Pete,” is a unique character for a role model who works so well with a “screwup” like Liam. In his quest for identity, Liam learns that maybe he should work on being himself rather than trying to be the person someone else wants him to be.

   --- Reviewed by Kristi Olson

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