This is a very belated review. This book was not at all what I expected. Yet, I really enjoyed it and am still thinking about the characters a few days later. The title leads us to believe this centers around a group of high school students, but it really is a school year in the life of a family. A little bit like The Wonder Years but make it the late 80s and give it a darker edge. Not a lot in the way of plot, but it felt like real life. The end left me wanting like a 10-20 years later update but I know the open ending was intentional.

This book has all of the elements to a story that I should absolutely love. There's family drama, an 80s setting, with a character driven narrative. All of the ingredients for a great novel (for myself). I just felt that the plot was too messy, and the book could not figure out where it was going. Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. I am still obsessed with the cover!

A coming of age story featuring main character Dan Malone. His family has relocated to Texas for a job, but after losing the job that sent them there, his Father struggles with alcoholism and multiple sclerosis.

Dan struggles with high school, and his Mother faces challenges with her alcoholic husband who is now unemployed.

Overall, well written and captures the dysfunction in family, but this may not have been the right book for me at the time.

*many thanks to Putnam and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/books/2021/01/19/sean-desmond-mined-his-experiences-growing-up-in-1980s-dallas-for-his-new-novel-sophomores/

I am not a Norwegian rat. At least not when it comes to this book. I'm sure there are those of us who will have the time and interest to read this book deeply, but it just wasn't me. I wasn't interested in any of the character enough to spend the time to read closely.

Well paced, albeit slow, family drama taking place in a Dallas suburb in the late '80s. And like the cul-de-sac so common in suburbs, this story goes no where.

Fans of nostalgia will enjoy the many "product placements" of '80s society but I found it distracting.

I didn't finish this book. The author took too long in the beginning to get to the plot of the story. I understand he was developing the characters, but with so many other good books to read that start off with a "bang" - I didn't have the patience for this book. Possibly will try again some other time.

Sophomores plants us in the suburbs of late ‘80s Dallas, where we get to know three family members who are each absorbed by their own struggles and experiencing pivotal seasons of life.

Although we center on one family throughout, each character’s POV feels somewhat detached from the others— I think this was intentional. Each character deals with deeply personal struggles that cause them to turn in on themselves and shut out the rest of their family.

In many ways, Dan’s chapters acted as a portal back to my high school years. Although I didn’t grow up in the 80s and I’m a Houston gal (boo Dallas sucks), Dan’s experiences as a high school swimmer, young Catholic, and hopeful writer felt reminiscent of my own time in high school.

Desmond manages to capture the naïveté and self-absorption teens have (as Dan hardly mentions what his parents are going through), but Dan’s chapters also act as a hopeful reprieve from the heaviness of Pat’s and Anne’s painful narratives.

Pat is a hard character to love, but also a hard character to criticize. He has been diagnosed with MS, and this crushing life event drives him to drink. The help that he so desperately needs is always just slightly out of his grasp, and much of his story revolves around despair and hopelessness. This was hard to read. It’s hard to watch someone give up completely and sink into utter wretchedness.

For me, Anne was the most dynamic, fascinating character to read from. In her son’s and husband’s chapters, she appears as a hysterical shrew who’s out to make their lives miserable. In her own chapters, she’s a woman who has lost all control of her “normal” family life, causing her to desperately seek out justice and something right with the world.

She becomes a juror on a high-profile murder trial, which consumes her completely. Through Anne, Desmond raises questions about the role of religious leaders in our communities (especially in Texas) and about the legal system’s many flaws. I admired Anne for her quiet feminism and attempts to challenge the corrupt systems around her.

With Sophomores, Sean Desmond serves up an intimate, contemplative novel that’s rich in detail, and that fully immerses you in the lives of these three characters.

Sophomores is a thought-provoking book of contrasts; the characters are up against struggles in many ways. It is also a stroll through high school literature classes as readers will walk along with Holden and Gatsby.
In the Malone family, living in Dallas in the late 1980s, there are many personal battles. They appear to be a solid family, but the novel reveals the cracks in their public impression.
Anne, the good Catholic mother, is prone to tears of frustration at every turn. She feels some worth when she is select as a juror on a high profile case involving a Methodist minister who is accused of strangling his wife.
Patrick, the father, struggles with multiple sclerosis and alcoholism. He is an airline executive trying to keep his illnesses a secret in order to keep his job.
Dan, the son, a bright prep school student, is working through all those 10th grade concerns: academics, girls, college, and family life.
The novel is recommended for readers who like masked family dramas that reveal what goes on behind closed doors; the novel is especially recommended for book discussion groups.

Thank you so much to the publisher for my giveaway digital ARC of Sophomores!  I don,'t always gravitate towards general / literary fiction but read the last 50% of this one in one night and have no regrets!

Such a great premise.  I latched onto "enigmatic English teacher" and decided to give the book a shot! The book follows each member of the Malone family for about a year, and I think the easiest way to review this one is to give each character/storyline a paragraph!

Let's start with Dan: he is a sophomore in a private high school for boys, smart but not drawing attention to it. His absolutely brilliant honors English teacher sparks a sense of Give-A-Shit into Dan when Mr. Oglesby challenges the class to not be regular rats, but Norwegian rats! It's just something you have to read.  Dan deals with his father's alcoholism and sickness, and the family's overall dysfunction, while navigating sophomore year amongst a group of realistically loveable and ridiculous friends.  I liked having glimpses into their shenanigans and family troubles, and they were funny!

It's not a party til someone shoots a firework out of their ass, right? 😂😂

Anne, the mother, is selected to be a juror in a local high profile attempted murder trial, where a Reverend tried to (allegedly) murder his wife .  I think Anne sees herself and her own suffocation in the victim.  What a life, I can't imagine having a blithering alcoholic husband who loses his job and keeps spending money on alcohol! I would be screaming and picking fights too, but I have to hand it to her for staying in the house.  Anne's unravelling is pretty sad to see

Pat, the father, is an alcoholic like his own father.  He loses his job at the airline after enough people catch him drinking when he should probably be working or available for work.  He knows he's sick, with both MS and Alcoholism, and has an epiphany in the hospital at one point where he and this other alcoholic are just taking up beds for people who might be having real emergencies. Yep, that happens.  I really disliked Pat, I'm kind of surprised he wasn't scared of alcohol after his own childhood.  His point of view served to show the family's history a bit too though and then he became the broken head of a broken  household, trying to break the cycle he was stuck in.

Would Oglesby like that analysis? I wish my AP English teacher cared so much!

Anyway - all of the storylines form well rounded, thoughtful characters.  Dan's hilarious friends and high school life offset some of the tougher themes like faith and broken families.  It is a very real story that spares no feelings whatsoever, and I did read the last 50% in one sitting 😳

My only thing was the absolute number of words I had to look up! I consider my vocabulary pretty well rounded and I was still thankful to be reading on Kindle so I could just click words! So many words.

I would totally recommend for anyone interested in high school nostalgia, literary discourse, football, Irish American slice of life, fiction in general, and family stories!

The main character, Dan, is a sophomore in high school, and given the title, you’d think this would be the most compelling part of the story. It’s not. The portions of the book when Dan is in school are the least interesting to me, with his personal exploits with friends and girls being a little more engaging. Dan’s mother’s storyline as she is a juror for Reverend Raleigh’s trial is the most intriguing element, while I was overall most captivated by his father Pat’s drinking problem. (Also, I expected the episode with Carmen and her daughter to come back at some point later to haunt Pat - maybe they robbed him or he contracted HIV or something, but nothing further ever came of it.)

Sophomores by Sean Desmond is a coming of age story of the main character, Dan Malone. The Malone family has relocated to Texas for Pat Malone’s job. However, Pat ends up losing his job. The story presents the challenges faced by the family including Pat’s struggle with alcoholism and multiple sclerosis, Dan’s struggle with finding motivation and getting through high school, and Anne’s struggle as she faces life with an unemployed, drunk husband. Anne is chosen to a juror on a sensational murder case where a pastor is accused of murdering his wife. This novel tells three different stories in one, those of Pat, Anne, and Dan Malone. This book portrays a coming of age story and follows Dan as he matures and realizes what is going on around him.

Though the book was well written, I just could not get into the way I would have liked. The story of Dan Malone
who was taught by an interesting teacher wo helped shape and prepare him for the future. The story line about his parents and life in the late 1980's contained to much religion for my tastes.

I won this book in a giveaway. This was completely different and not what I had expected. I think I definitely ventured out of my comfort zone after reading this one. I just don't think it was for me.