Ezra Faulkner is not looking forward to the start of his senior year. Sure last year was great, being part of the tennis team, having a beautiful and popular girlfriend, and almost winning the class presidency, but things are different now. His tragedy happened right before the prom, when catching his girlfriend with another guy, he leaves a party early, and is hit by a SUV running a stoplight. His fancy car and his tennis career are destroyed along with his old life.After a summer of recovery, it's clear that Ezra is lucky to be walking again. His old friends didn't visit him once over the summer, so he sits next to former best friend Toby during the first day of school pep assembly. Ezra finds a new group of misfit friends, joins the debate team and befriends beautiful new girl Cassidy Thorpe.
With Cassidy, and his new friends, Ezra starts to see things differently. His old friends seem so one dimensional, acting in very predicable ways, while his new friends seem to inject life into things that he would have found laughable. It's Cassidy who really starts to open Ezra's eyes, and it's Cassidy who also has secrets and speaks in code. Her past, and her inability to tell Ezra what happened to her, becomes a wedge that might just give Ezra his second greatest tragedy.
The Beginning of Everything is an introspective look at how tragedy shapes people's lives. Ezra is immediately likable, and like most high school seniors looking for a place in a world that is changing.Fans of John Green's books, especially Looking for Alaska, or Tim Tharp's The Spectacular Now will enjoy The Beginning of Everything. Like Pete Hautman's The Big Crunch this is a breathtakingly reaslitic look at growing up and the relationships that shape us early on.Oh, did I mention it's a MCTBA nominee?
I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Now reading The Raven Boys!)
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