Nothing Special

Last year, Geoff Herbach’s critically acclaimed and award-winning debut novel, Stupid Fast, a wryly humorous coming-of-age tale narrated by a self-deprecatingly witty 15 year-old, Felton Reinstein, brilliantly captured the spectacle of high school sports, the trials of puberty and the complexities of a first romance. Praised as “one of the most real, honest, and still funny male voices to come around in a while,” (YALSA), the novel invited comparisons to Holden Caulfield and Eric ‘Moby’ Calhoune and was named a 2012 ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults, and selected as 2011 ABA Best Books for Children and a 2011 Junior Library Guild selection.

In the sequel, Nothing Special, Felton Reinstein thinks he finally has some semblance of order in his life. He has a great girlfriend, an athletic scholarship in the bag, and totally reliable friends. Like an elephant storming a house of cards, it all comes crashing down. And it’s Felton’s fault.

With each day going from bad to worse, Felton tries to figure out his own problems, forgetting about everyone else in his life. And his little brother Andrew (aka the “nothing special” brother) decides he has had enough of Felton’s narcissism and takes an impromptu road trip to Florida (aka desperate flight from all the talented people) to make a bid for stardom (aka fronting a hotel rock band with escapees from a retirement community.) And in Florida, nothing can hold him back!

In a mad dash cross-country trip with his best friend, Gus, Felton heads to Florida to help pick-up the pieces of the now broken brother bond, even if it means giving up all the status and all the glory of a college football career. Felton realizes that he even though he can run stupid fast and is an amazing athlete, he still can’t control the world. He is, just like everyone else, nothing special…